


Mutant L

by Aderynbrea



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-26
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-17 02:39:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1370860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aderynbrea/pseuds/Aderynbrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Kraang are up to something again and this time, it's not what the Turtles expected. They'll gain a new ally in their journey but are they sure they can trust her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mutant L

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first TMNT fanfic as well as my first story on AO3! This story is also on Fanfiction. I've done my best to edit, since I don't have a beta, so please excuse any errors in the story. I'd love to hear from you about the story, so let me know with a comment! Thanks!

It had been nearly three weeks since their last standoff with the Shredder and no new activity from the Kraang. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo resumed their nightly patrols across the city. Tonight they, or more so Leo, decided it would be best to have a stakeout by TCRI in order to keep tabs on the Kraang’s movements. Leo perched himself on the edge of a neighboring building, keeping his eyes peeled for any suspicious activity. His brothers on the other hand, were less attentive to the task at hand.

  
“Ouch! Stop it!” Mikey shouted. Raphael had him in a headlock and was in the process of giving him a noogie.

  
“I’m having too much fun to stop,” Raph laughed while applying more pressure to Mikey’s head.

  
“Come on, Donnie. You’ve gotta help me!” Mikey pleaded.

  
“I’d be stupid to get in between that. Sorry Mikey, but this is your problem,” Donnie replied with a small smile.

  
Leo turned around and noticed his brothers messing around. He let out a deep sigh before interrupting, “Can we please focus on the mission, guys? If the Kraang are up to something, it’s up to us to stop them.”

  
Raph released Mikey from his grasp and threw his hands in the air, “We’ve been up here for nearly four hours, Leo, and nothing is happening! I think we can call it a night.”  
“Raph is right,” Donnie added, “I don’t think there is anything for us to do tonight.”

  
Leo lifted his finger in a matter-of-factual way, “It’s our duties as heroes to make sure the bad guys don’t…”

  
A loud crash came from the ally between the building they were on and the next. The brothers shot up to attention and moved to investigate the noise. They peered over the edge of the building and noticed three Kraangbots moving a large container from a garage into a white van. The container was labeled with the letters “ML” on all sides.  
“Be careful with the container that contains the thing called Mutagen L. It is important to the experiment known as Mutagen L,” one of the Kraangbots commanded.

  
“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Leo whispered.

  
“It’ll only be worth it if I get to bash some Kraangbot heads together,” Raph grinned.

  
“Be patient, Raph,” Leo ordered, “This has to be a stealth mission. We need the Kraang to lead us straight to their new base of operations. Donnie, how quickly can you get the Shellraiser here?”

  
Donnie’s face was smug, “Already ahead of you. It’s parked around the corner. This’ll also give me a perfect opportunity to test out the tracking device I’ve been working on,” Donnie rustled a small black device out and turned to Mikey, “Would you be able to throw this at the back of the van?”

  
“Sure thing, bro! I have the best aim in all of New York City!”

  
“That thing is black. It’ll stick out on a white van,” Raph pointed out the obvious flaw.

  
“Actually, I designed to camouflage with any surface once activated,” Donnie refuted.

  
“You just have an answer for everything, don’t you?” Raph grunted.

  
“Of course I do. It’s called being prepared, Raph. Not like you’d understand.”

  
“Why you…!” Raph jumped up but Leo signaled him to stand down. By this point, the Kraang finished loading up and jumping into the van.

  
“Save it for later, you two,” Leo scolded, “We don’t have time. Mikey, get that tracking device on the van, now!”

  
“Leave it to me,” Mikey boasted. Donnie pressed a button on the device and handed it to Mikey. With a swift toss, the tracking device landed exactly on the back of the van door where it instantly blended in with the color of the vehicle. “Bullseye!” Mikey cheered with pumping arms.

  
“Good work, Mikey,” Leo congratulated, “Now let’s go see what the Kraang are up to this time.”

  
The Turtles quickly made their way down to the Shellraiser. The Kraang gained some distance on them but Donnie had their exact location pin-pointed on the map in Mikey’s station.

  
“Nice upgrade,” Mikey complimented Donnie while looking at his new map.

  
“Now Leo, be sure to keep a safe distance between us and the Kraang. We can’t let them think they’re being followed,” Donnie instructed.

  
“Gotcha’,” Leo replied with a thumbs up and slowly drove the Shellraiser towards the Kraang’s location.

  
The van led them to the other side of the city near the industrial district. It slipped into the garage of an old abandoned factory building. It was dilapidated and looked like it would collapse on itself any minute. Leo decided to park the Shellraiser a few blocks away, continuing to follow the van on foot.

  
Getting into the garage was easy enough since the Kraang left the door unlocked. It was less work for them. The brothers made their way into the building to find the van disappeared. All they saw was a concrete room with a few wooden boxes on pallets sitting on the floor.

  
“I saw this one coming,” Raph sighed with frustration.

  
“This has to be like the other Kraang hideouts. Let’s spread out and find a trigger or a door that either leads to a secret passage way or that creepy portal world,” Leo ordered.

  
They looked high and low for anything that would tell them where the van went. Leo and Raph looked through the boxes while Donnie and Mikey searched the walls and floors, respectively. Still nothing.

  
“They had to have gone somewhere. The trigger has to be around here,” Donnie mused to himself.

  
“This is a complete waste of time,” Raph huffed and slammed his foot to the ground. The force of the contact was strong enough to move the ground slightly and caused the corner of the concrete floor to pop up.

  
Donnie moved in to examine the piece closer. He started to lift the large piece and noticed a hole underneath it, “Hey, help me with this. I think there’s a tunnel under here.”

  
The other three moved in to help Donnie lift the slab up. They moved it aside and looked down into the dark abyss. Not wanting to waste any time, Leo motioned his brothers to move in. The fall was not as far as they expected, landing on the ground with a light thud. Wherever the heck they ended up was nearly pitch black. The only source of light came from the far end of the tunnel. It was light enough to illuminate some sort of exit, but not enough to allow them to see their surroundings. They didn’t have any other option though and they made their way down the dark passageway. Leo whispered quietly to walk towards the light.

  
The first few minutes of their walk shrouded them in silence. No one dared to say a word to each other. They had no idea if they were alone or not and didn’t want to risk giving away their location. As they got closer, they could make out the faint silhouette of their bodies. After a couple of steps further they began to hear muffled sounds. As they continued walking, the noises became clearer and they began to hear parts of a conversation. One voice was obvious just from the annoying robotic tone of it. The other was not one the Turtles expected to hear.

  
It was a feminine voice.

  
Eventually, the conversation became understandable.

  
“Let me go! You can’t lock me up like this!” shouted the female voice. There was a slight pounding noise from below them.

  
“Releasing the one called Mutant L is not a thing Kraang can do for the one called Mutant L.”

  
The Turtles made their way to the source of the light and commotion. There was a large grate on the floor of the tunnel looking down into a room with a Kraangbot guard. However, the angle they were at didn’t allow them to see who was locked up. All they could see was a corner of a holding cell.

  
Leo looked to his brothers and gave them a flurry of hand signals. He conveyed that Donnie and Mikey were to start making noises a little further away down the tunnel to distract the Kraang guard while he and Raph jumped in and ambush him and any other threats. Before Leo could finish the last sign, Raph dropped on top of the Kraangbot and swiftly stabbed the robot in the head with his sai.

  
Leo shook his head, “He never listens to me.”

  
With the plan nixed, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey followed suit and dropped into the room. The room was poorly lit and the side with the cage nearly consumed by blackness. The half that was lit housed four other Kraangbots and it didn’t take long to take them down. After the last Kraang squealed and scurried away, the brothers looked towards the force field cage. Cowered in the corner was a humanoid figure but it was hard to make out her appearance.

  
Leo approached the cage door. “You don’t need to worry. You’re safe now.” He held out his hand as a welcoming gesture to lure her out of the corner.

  
“Who are you?” the girl asked.

  
“My name is Leonardo and these are my brothers, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.”

  
The girl took a small step forward. Leo could tell she wore her hair in high ponytail but the rest of her was still in the shadows. “You look like turtles.”

  
“Yeah, we’re ninja turtles. Pretty cool, I know,” Mikey bragged.

  
Raph jabbed him in the stomach, “You’re not supposed to say that, you idiot.”

  
“Ninja turtles, huh? I take it you’re mutants then?”

  
“Yes, that would be correct,” Donnie joined in.

  
“Then maybe you can help me with this predicament I’m in. I’m not exactly sure what to do now.”

  
The girl finally stepped forward into the light. Her hair was a dark mocha brown and pulled into a high ponytail, just like Leo noticed previously. It was tied together with a light pink ribbon. She also had choppy bangs that sat right above her eyes, accentuating their brilliant blue hue. However, it wasn’t her hair or eyes that stuck out the most. It was her body. She looked like a human lizard. Her body was light green with the exception of her yellow colored chest and abdomen. Her tail swayed back and forth lightly as she walked straight up to the edge of her cage. The four fingers on each hand pressed up against the translucent walls.

  
“How ugly do I look?” she asked. She was obviously upset.

  
The brothers looked at each other in complete shock. They stammered with some sort of answer but couldn’t manage to say anything clearly.

  
“I see,” she sighed, staring at the ground.

  
“Don’t be like that! You’re not that ugly, it’s just that we’ve never met a mutant like you before,” Mikey stumbled.

  
Tears began to well in the girls eyes.

  
“Not helping, Mikey!” Donnie spat.

  
“What else am I supposed to say?!” Mikey pouted.

  
Raph took a step forward, “I don’t think you’re ugly. I think you’re kinda cute…or something like that.” Raph winced at his words. That wasn’t what he wanted to say.

  
Leo, Donnie, and Mikey glared at Raph, jaws dropped.

  
“You said what?” Donnie shouted.

  
The girl began chuckling, “You’re too sweet, but you don’t need to lie to make me feel better. I asked because I haven’t actually looked in a mirror since the Kraang changed me. All I’ve seen is my body and this tail. I have no idea what my face looks like. Anyways, how about getting me out of here? I’m sick of being locked up.”

  
“Yeah, sure thing,” Donnie snapped out of his state of shock and rushed up to the control panel. After messing around with it for a minute, a small beep sounded and the door opened. The girl walked out and held out her hand to her rescuers.

  
“Where are my manners? I should have introduced myself earlier. My name is Mona.”


	2. Mona Lisa

_“Where are my manners? I should have introduced myself earlier. My name is Mona.”_

Each brother quickly shook the hand Mona offered.

“Now that the pleasantries are over, how do we get out of this place?” Raph grumbled.

“There’s an exit on the other side of the facility. At least, I think it’s an exit. It’s where the Kraang brought me in,” Mona answered. She walked over to the door to the room and opened it, “But I can’t leave this place without my weapons. They should be in a storage room at the end of this hallway.”

“Then let’s grab your weapons and get out of here before the Kraang notice you’re gone,” Leo ordered.

Mona ended up taking the lead with the Turtles closely behind her. The hallway was longer than they expected but it seemed like Mona knew where she was going. It was empty and did not seem like the Kraang sounded any alarms. Leo thought this would be a perfect time to ask a few questions that sat in his mind.

“The Kraang referred to you as ‘Mutant L,’ and earlier we saw them moving a container that they called ‘Mutagen L’ and labeled as ‘ML.’ Do you know what it means?”

Mona shook her head, “Unfortunately, no. Ever since I’ve been here, it’s all they’ve ever called me. I can only guess what the ‘L’ stands for.”

“Probably ‘lizard,’” Raph smirked.

Leo and Donnie turned to him with a death glare. First he compliments her then turns around and ridicules her.

Mikey obliviously ignored the previous comment and strolled up alongside Mona, “Maybe there’s another meaning to ‘ML.’ Perhaps it stands for ‘Mona Lisa.’ You know, like your name!”

“My middle name isn’t L…” Mona started to say when Raph smacked Mikey on the head.

Mikey grabbed his head in pain and moaned, “What was that for?”

“For being an idiot,” Raph bluntly replied.

“I’m actually surprised you even know what the Mona Lisa is, Mikey,” Donnie added.

“Well, I do. Plus, she looks like the Mona Lisa and it fits with the initials. I thought it was a good name for her.”

Leo sighed, “She already has a name, Mikey. You don’t need to give her a new one.”

“I’m just adding more style to it, that’s all.”

“Don’t worry. The name is fine, but you can just call me Mona.”

Suddenly, she stopped in front of an iron door, “This is it.”

Instinctively, Donnie started working on the lock. He cracked so many of these codes that it was now child’s play to him. Moments later it beeped and the door opened. Mona walked into the room first followed by Donnie and Mikey. Leo and Raph checked both ways down the hallway to make sure no one was around before entering themselves.

When Mona said the place was a storage room, she really meant it. It was a giant room filled from floor to ceiling with shelves and every space occupied with some sort of gadget. Donnie turned googley-eyed with so much tech surrounding him. If only he could take it all back to his lab. Mikey, on the other hand, wanted to touch everything in sight but could not with Raph constantly smacking his hands down.

“Ah! Here they are!” Mona yelled. Everyone caught up to her just as she strapped a belt around her waist. The belt had a gun holster on each side as well as a few pouches around the front and back. She checked the ammo in each gun before placing it back into the holster.

“Guns, huh?” Leo pondered aloud. He didn’t mean for Mona to hear.

“Yeah, I learned how to shoot from my mother. She was quite the marksmen. Actually, all of my fighting skills came from her. She studied different self-defense tactics growing up. She eventually taught me and my brother, but I’m the one who stuck to the training.”

“You have a brother?” Mikey asked.

“I do. He’s the reason I’m in this mess in the first place. The Kraang are holding him hostage and I’ve been trying to save him. I’ve completely failed so far,” Mona stared at the ground solemnly.

“Why would the Kraang want him?” Donnie questioned.

“I’m guessing it’s because of his intellect. My brother, Jeremy, is only seventeen but he’s a genius. He received his PhD a few years ago in both physics and astronomy. His research involved terraforming planets.”

“That would explain why the Kraang want him then,” Donnie continued.

“Great. That’s exactly what we needed; more terraforming experiments. The last time we stopped them Leo nearly died!” Raph exclaimed with his arms in the air.

Mikey wrapped his arm around Raph’s neck, “Calm down, bro. Leo’s alive, see? Nothing to worry about.”

“That’s not the point, Mikey,” he countered.

“Sorry to break up the conversation, guys, but we need to get going,” Mona interrupted.

With that, they exited the storage room and continued to follow Mona to the end of the hallway and around the corner. Suddenly, two Kraangbot guards turned the corner on the other side and spotted the intruders.

“Kraang, it is the ones called the Turtles with the one called Mutant L in the place that they shouldn’t be in.”

Seconds later, an alarm sounded and they were quickly surrounded by Kraangbots on both sides.

Raph grinned as he pulled out his sais, “Finally, time for some action!”

“Raph, you and I will take on the Kraang down there,” Leo ordered, “Donnie, Mikey, and Mona, focus on the ones right behind us.”

Everyone moved into action. Leo and Raph rushed towards the bots at the other end of the hallway. There were five of them, but nothing the two of them couldn’t handle. One Kraangbot began shooting at Leo but he was able to deflect the rounds with his katanas. They ricocheted and hit the Kraang squarely in the head as well as the one next to it. Meanwhile, Raph slid underneath the row of bots and lunged one of his sais in the back of its head, causing it to explode.

On the other side, Mikey, Donnie, and Mona had eight Kraangbots to deal with. Donnie and Mikey began smacking two of them around with their weapons, causing them to be disoriented. That was the perfect time for Mona to slide in, both guns in hand, and take them out with head shots. After they went down, another bot lunged at Mona, causing her to jump back and nearly loose her footing. The displacement gave another Kraangbot the opportunity to shoot at Mona. She dodged the shots easily enough but quickly realized they started to surround her. Luckily for her, Mikey wrapped his nunchucks around two of them and threw them away from her, smacking them against the wall. Donnie pole-vaulted himself up and took out another two with a swift kick. Mona took the chance to take out the last two with inferno rounds.

With the hallway littered with Kraangbot bodies, the group took the opportunity to dash towards the exit. Mona took the lead again and luckily no more Kraang appeared.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Raph asked as they ran.

“I do. I have a really good memory, so I remembered the path the Kraang took me on. The exit should be just around this corner.”

She was right. A platform with a lever appeared before them. They rushed onto it while Donnie pulled the lever. The platform shook and suddenly launched them upwards. The ceiling split away, revealing the moonlight. As the platform approached the surface, it kept the same speed. It stopped the moment it became flush with the floor, hurling everyone into the air. Unfortunately, they were thrown into another concrete room and their landing was in no way soft.

“Ugh, I think I broke my shell,” Mikey moaned.

“Can everyone walk?” Leo asked.

Everyone muttered some sort of affirmative answer. They made their way outside and Donnie realized they were not too far from where they first entered. The hobbled their way back to the Shellraiser and made sure they were not followed. Everyone took their place while Mona found a hand grip to hold onto in the back.

Leo plopped himself in his seat and started the vehicle. “We’re going to have to bring her back to the lair, you guys realize this right?”

“What do you think Splinter will say?” Donnie asked as his head popped around the corner of his station.

Leo took in a deep breath, “We’ll just have to explain everything to him. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

Raph turned to him and pointed his finger at him, “You mean _you’re_ going to explain it to Splinter. You’re the one to mention the idea.”

“Fine, I’ll do the talking.”

“I’m perfectly capable of speaking for myself, thank you,” Mona chimed in.

“I know you are, but Splinter is wary of outsiders. He has accepted a couple of humans and other mutants into the lair, but it took a lot of convincing on our part.” Leo remembered the times when April, Casey, and Leatherhead first came into the lair; especially Leatherhead. Luckily Mona did not seem like the kind to go crazy at the drop of a pin.

The rest of the drive was silent. It was awkward but no one could find anything meaningful to say as they made their way back home. Once there everyone filed out, with Mona taking up the rear. Mikey turned to Mona and assured her everything would work out. She could only hope that would be the case.

“You were out later than usual.”

The tone in their father’s voice was a bit concerning, but nothing they had not heard before.

Leo lowered his head slightly as he spoke to Splinter, “Sorry, Sensei. We ran into a bit of a predicament.” He turned his head around to look at Mona as she entered the lair.

“And who is this?”

“Th…”

“My name is Mona, sir. I’m sorry to impose on you and your home so abruptly,” she interrupted. She lowered her head slightly, mimicking what Leo did just moments ago.

Splinter methodically stroked his beard, “I see. And what exactly is your story?”

Between Mona and Leo, and eventually Mikey, Raph, and Donnie, they retold their story to Splinter. Through its entirety, he remained silent with an occasional grunt and hum here and there. Even after the retelling, he did not say a word. The brothers knew Splinter was meditating on the matter but anxiety shot through Mona’s body.

Then Splinter broke his meditation.

“She can stay.”

“Really?” all four brothers said in unison. The tones were different, however. Leo and Mikey’s tone was enthusiastic while Donnie and Raph’s were filled with shock.

“Yes, she can. This is a difficult transition in her life, so it’s best if she had a safe haven to call home. There is a spare room across from the dojo she can use.”

Mona bowed her head again, this time in appreciation than reverence, “Thank you, Splinter. This means a lot to me.”

“It’s nothing,” Splinter smiled, “Since it seems like you’re a skilled fighter, I invite you to train with me and my sons in the dojo.”

“I’d be honored to.”

“Good. We’ll have a training session tomorrow. Now, I believe it’s time to retire. I suggest you all get rest. I will not go easy on any of you tomorrow.” Splinter turned and slipped away into the dojo.

Mikey came up to Mona and grabbed her arm, “I’ll show you where your room is.”

The others decided to follow suit and made their way to their own quarters.

Tomorrow would be a new and fresh day.  

                                                                                                                             

 

 

 


	3. The New Mona

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mona adjusts to her new life as a mutant. Luckily, she has help.

Mona’s eyelids opened as she rolled over to look at the alarm clock Mikey let her borrow. The dull green hue illuminated “4:00 am” on its display. _Go figure,_ she thought, _it doesn’t matter where I am, I rarely sleep past four._ She closed her eyes again, trying to listen for any noise outside of her room. She was not sure if the turtles were up or not. Judging by the silence, they were still asleep. This would be a perfect time to explore the lair in peace.

She rolled out of bed and stood up. Her body still ached from the mutation, but all she could do was to spend a couple of minutes stretching out. It helped a little bit, but this new form was something she would have to get used to. Afterwards, she walked up to her door and gingerly slipped out. The thing was made of solid metal, so she tried her best to be quiet and not disturb anyone else. She turned around to walk into the main living area and realized she was not the only one awake.

Raph sat on the couch, methodically cleaning and sharpening his sais. Out of everyone, Raph was the last one Mona would have guessed to be up at this hour.

“Good morning,” she greeted.

Raph looked up from his work to her, “Oh, uh, good morning yourself.” He returned to his work.

This was probably a sign that he wanted to be left alone, but Mona was genuinely curious about something, “Are you always up this early?”

“Every morning.”

“Are you always cleaning and sharpening your weapons?”

“No. Sometimes I use the time to just think.”

“About what? Reflecting about the day before? Musing about the world?” she quipped.

“Wondering why you ask so many questions?” he retorted.

Her eyes hit the floor. She overstepped her boundaries. Why was she mutated into a lizard? Why not a cat? Her curiosity always seemed to get her in trouble.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t know if you’ve noticed already, but I can be pretty brash with what I say and do.”

Mona looked up at Raph, “No, I was too nosey. My curiosity always gets the best of me.”

“No worries, but now I have to ask, do _you_ always get up this early?”

She nodded her head, “My circadian rhythm kicks in no matter where I am.”

“I guess I’ll have company in the mornings from now on,” he paused briefly, “Not saying it’s a bad thing.”

“Just let me know if I bother you. I don’t mean to intrude on your morning routine.”

He waved off the comment, “It’s fine. You haven’t had a chance to look around, have you?”

“No, not yet. I was hoping to do that this morning but…”

“Here, I’ll show you around,” he rose up from the couch and led her over to the entrance they came in through last night. Since the lair was mostly open concept, the tour did not last long. Soon, they were back to the couch and continued to talk until Donnie, Leo and Mikey woke up. Mikey decided to make pizza omelets for breakfast.

“Pizza omelets? That’s an interesting combination,” Mona stabbed the outside a little before taking a bite.

“Pizza is the best food ever! It’s my fuel!” Mikey exclaimed. Mona took a bite while Mikey stared at her with anticipation, “So, how is it? Pretty awesome, huh?”

Mona took her time chewing. She was not a fan of pizza for breakfast but the flavor profile was spot on. She actually like it.

“Not bad, Mikey. You’ve got me convinced.”

“You better fill up before training. Splinter won’t give us many breaks in between,” Leo added.

“It is time for training, my sons,” Splinter called over from the dojo entrance.

“Speak of the devil,” Raph sighed.

Everyone finished up the last bites of food before making their way over. This was Mona’s first time in the dojo. It was drastically ornate compared to the rest of the lair. She really loved the tree, though. Even in a dark and damp place, a beautiful piece of nature could thrive.

Splinter walked up to the door of his room and stopped abruptly in front of it, “We’ll start off with a simple last man standing sparring match. You are to use every skill you’ve learned to take each other out.”

“Um, Sensei,” Leo interrupted, “What about Mona?”

“What about her?”

“I’m not saying using guns is unfair, but aren’t they a little dangerous in a confined space like this?”

“I do not see the problem, Leonardo.”

“Actually, I’d rather not waste my ammo,” Mona interjected, “I haven’t had time to make any new rounds.”

“Then what do you propose using to defend yourself?” Splinter asked.

Mona looked around the dojo before her eyes landed on the bow and arrows hanging on the wall. She walked over and lifted them off then strapped the container of suction cup arrows on her back and checked the draw length of the bow. It was perfect.

“Interesting choice,” Splinter remarked.

“It seems like the best fit. I aim and shoot. How much different can it be from shooting a gun?”

“You mean you’ve never used a bow and arrow before?” Raph teased.

“Nope!” she replied with a smile.

“Take you positions,” Splinter ordered. The five students situated themselves in a pentagon, allowing everyone to see each other.

“Hajime!”

Mona took a quick mental note of the situation. She had to be careful of Mikey and Donnie’s reach since their advantage of distance was similar to hers. Leo and Raph dealt more damage at a closer range and they could easily disarm her bulky weapon. The best vantage point would be higher ground. As long as she could maintain that, she’d be fine.

Mona made a jump for the sewage pipes running across the ceiling of the dojo. She used her tail hang from the piping. Surprisingly, her tail was strong enough to hold the weight of her body. Very useful. After settling into position, she reached for an arrow and drew it on her first target: Mikey.

“Whoa! Not cool, dude!” Mikey complained. Mona took a shot at him but he dodged it at the last second.

“How could I not take advantage of my surroundings?” Mona quipped.

“You’re going down!” Mikey threw one end of his nunchucks with the kusarigama into the piping, using the blade as a grappling hook. However, in the time it took him to swing his body up towards Mona, she already had another arrow loaded and hit Mikey squarely on the forehead.

“Boom, headshot.”

“Darn it!” Mikey yelled in frustration. He released the nunchucks from the pipe and quietly kneeled next to where Splinter stood.

“Nice one, Mona, but you can’t stay up there forever,” Leo pointed out.

“True, but this is working pretty well.”

This time, she loaded the next three arrows in rapid succession, aiming for each remaining turtle. Unfortunately, they knocked them away. No matter how many arrows she launched, they never made contact. It was time to switch positions. She looked over towards the tree and noticed a nook that would give her a different angle of attack. While she moved, Raph disarmed Donnie by knocking his staff away with his sais and quickly took him out of the fight with a swift kick to the abdomen.

Mona surprised Raph a couple rounds of arrows. He dodged them but it knocked him off balance. Leo took this opportunity to make an attack on his brother but Raph was quick to recover.

_Shoot! These arrows aren’t doing any damage. They’re only knocking them off balance. No way can I continue like this, especially one-on-one,_ Mona thought.

That’s when the brilliant idea hit her. She had to approach the situation in a way Leo and Raph would not expect. She’d be able to take one out and that would leave her nearly defenseless against the other, but it was a risk worth taking.

Mona bided her time until Raph and Leo were near the tree. When Leo had his back to her, she jumped down from the tree and immediately took position behind him. Luckily she was quicker and knocked his feet out from under him with the bow. With Leo out, it was down to her and Raph.

“Nice move, but it won’t work on me,” Raph taunted.

“I wasn’t planning to. But I planned on doing this.”

Mona rushed at Raph, holding the bow in front of her. If she could disarm him with it, then the battle would be reduced to hand-to-hand combat. At least she had a fighting chance with those odds.

When she was within arm’s reach of Raph, Mona used her tail to life herself up and aimed for his head. Just as she predicted, he raised his sais to protect himself from the blow while interlocking his weapon with hers.

She twisted her body to the right to start knocking the sais out of his hand. However, he managed to counter her and took control of her momentum. Before Mona knew it, she landed face up on the floor and Raph had her at point with a sai.

Mona raised her hands in surrender, “Ok, you’ve got me.”

“Yame!” Splinter shouted.

Raph withdrew the sai and holstered the pair. He offered a hand to Mona and helped her off the ground.

“That was an interesting match,” Splinter commented, “You were more tactical in your approach than I expected, Mona.”

“Thank you, sir,” she answered.

“Please, call me Sensei,” he suggested, “You possess skills that could make you a powerful kunoichi, if you choose to follow that path.”

“I’m interested, but I’d like to think it through first, if you don’t mind.”

“Take your time. It is not a decision to blindly jump into.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, let’s move on to the next exercise.”

* * *

 

            _497._

_498._

_499._

_500._

After the last pull-up, Mona let go and plummeted to the ground, hitting the mat with a hard thump. She was surprised she could even go that far and felt proud she kept up with the turtles.

“Ugh, are we done yet?” Mikey groaned, holding his stomach, “I need pizza! Yogurt and tuna sounds so good right now!”

Mona’s stomach churned from the sound of that combination. _How could he even…?_

“Hello? Are you guys here?”

The voice came from the lair entrance.

Donnie’s eyes instantly lit up. He jumped to his feet and rushed out of the dojo, “My sweet angel is here!”

Everyone else followed, unenthusiastically, in suit.

Raph shook his head, “Does he always have to react like that? I’m starting to feel embarrassed for him.”

“I think it’s cute how lovey-dovey he gets,” Mikey gushed.

Once back in the living room, Mona understood why Raph felt embarrassed. Donnie practically leaned over this human girl while staring at her with love-struck eyes, trying too hard to make her like him. Mona was actually more surprised Donnie would fall for a human.

Then the human girl stared directly at Mona with a surprised look on her face.

“Who’s this?” she asked and took a couple of steps towards her.

Mikey stepped in and made an introductory bow, “ _This,_ is Mona Lisa. Cool name, right?”

Mona laughed to herself and held out a hand to the girl, “You can just call me Mona.”

She shook Mona’s hand, “I’m April O’Neil. How did you meet the guys?”

“We found her all alone in a cage and we rescued her and I named her and now she’s one of my BESTEST friends!” Mikey shouted.

“Mikey, curb the enthusiasm, _please_!” Donnie begged.

Mona decided to take the time and tell April her story about how she became involved with the Kraang and how the Turtles saved her. In return, April shared her tale with the Kraang and what happened to her father.

“Looks like we both have vendettas against the Kraang,” Mona consoled.

“I want, more than anything, to take them out,” April stated.

Donnie pat April on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, April, we will.”

“Sorry to break up the sentimental feeling, but it’s time to go on patrol, turtles,” Leo instructed.

“Are you staying, Mona?” April asked.

“I planned on it. I’d just get in their way anyways.”

April turned to her friends, “You guys go ahead. I’ll stay and keep Mona company.”

“Ok, see you later tonight then,” Donnie replied.

After the brothers left, an awkward silence filled the room. Mona was not sure what to say to April. Small talk would have to work.

“I, uh, like your outfit. It’s cute and it matches your personality.”

April looked down at her clothes and shrugged, “I never really thought of it that way. I’m not too much of a fashionista.”

Mona looked down at herself. She did not necessarily feel naked without clothes since her mutation, but it did feel odd not wearing anything.

“I’m going to have to get used to this,” Mona commented.

“You know, we might be able to find you something to wear. I have an idea,” April jumped up. She ran into Donnie’s room and came out with some kind of brown cloth. When she held it up, it was a cloak.

April tossed it to Mona, “Here, wear this. We’re gonna go shopping.”

Shopping was not exactly what Mona had in mind, but it beat sitting in the lair all night doing nothing. On the way to the surface, April and Mona agreed that a thrift store would be the best place to look for clothing options, especially since they were going to tear them apart. April knew of a great one near her home, so they went there.

Luckily for Mona, it was near closing time for the store and there we no other customers. That relieved much of her anxiety. It would have been embarrassing to have to explain to people why a green lizard lady wanted to try on clothes.

“What’s your favorite color, Mona?”

“Pink. Any shade, really.”

Just as she said that, a dress caught her eye. She lifted it off the rack and held it in front of her. It was a fuchsia pink and black square necked silhouette dress. It was definitely a dress she would have worn as a human.

“That’s cute! And it would be easy to make room for your tail too.”

“I should try it on,” Mona said while walking towards the dressing room. She silently slipped into the stall and locked it. She removed the cloak and held the dress in front of her again. She moved it right in front of her body to get an idea of what she’d look like. The colors complimented her skin and the dress looked like it would fit.

She took a deep breath and slipped it over her head. The dress slid on easily enough. She had to wiggle it down once it hit her tail but it covered her body completely. She stared in the mirror and liked how it looked. The dress hugged every curve of her body and the silhouetting really made them pop. It was a tad short for her liking, but it was something she could get used to. She turned to the side and got discouraged by the bulge on her bum. That was why it shortened. She really needed April’s opinion.

Mona cracked to door open to see if April was around. Fortunately she was right there.

“What do you think, April?” Mona asked as she gave her a spin around.

A glee-filled smile hit April’s face, “That looks amazing on you! Making room for your tail shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

“It’s not too short?”

“Not terribly bad. What about leggings? Would those go with the dress?”

Mona thought it over in her head. She actually liked the idea.

“I think they’d be perfect.”

Mona walked back into the fitting room, undressed and put the cloak back on. When she exited, April had gone to another section of the store. When Mona caught up with her, April found two pairs of leggings she thought would work. Mona was tempted to go with the ones with pink leggings with white ornate designs going down the legs but decided on the plain black ones. The dress was detailed enough.

Mona was happy with the new attire. As they moved towards the cash register, a bright piece of fuchsia fabric stuck out. The color matched perfectly with the dress, so she grabbed it as they passed by it.

“What do you plan to do with that?” April asked.

“It’ll be a surprise,” Mona grinned.

April offered to make the purchase, to which Mona was grateful for. They made their way back to the lair and got straight to work. April grabbed a pair of scissors from the kitchen and scavenged Donnie’s room for thread and a needle. They met up in Mona’s room and April got straight to work. Mona slipped on the leggings and April made a hole for her tail to fit through. After making the cut, Mona threw the dress on top and April repeated the same step. Then she asked Mona to take them off and sewed off the edges of the dress to keep the fabric from fraying.

“Mona! April! We’re back!” Mikey shouted as April tied off the last bit of thread on the dress.

“Perfect timing,” April said, “Time for the great reveal!”

Mona put the clothes back on and looked in the mirror. The fit was much better now there was room for her tail. She absolutely loved how everything looked on her. And for the final touch, she grabbed the pink fabric and tied it around her neck.

“April? Mona? Where are you?” Donnie asked.

April sighed at their impatience, “We’re in Mona’s room. Just give us a second.”

Mona was satisfied with her final look. She opened her door and walked out into the living room, followed by April. The turtles fell silent the moment they laid eyes on her.

“Wow, Mona! Nice duds!” Mikey complimented, breaking the silence.

She smiled, “Thanks. April helped me pick them out.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” April waived the complement off.

They spent a few minutes talking further about Mona’s new attire and eventually the topics changed from one thing to another. Before they knew it, it was 1:00 am.

“Dang it!” April anxiously looked at her phone, “I didn’t realize how late it was. I’ve gotta go! I’ll drop by sometime tomorrow. See you then!”

“It’s probably a good idea for everyone to get some rest,” Leo suggested.

“Catch you in the morning,” Donnie yawned as he made his way to his room.

Everyone said their goodnights and went to their rooms. Before jumping into bed, Mona took one last look at herself in the mirror. She noticed an unintentional smile on her face. She thought her life as a mutant would be a horrible and excruciating experience, but it was filled with nothing but joy. She was thankful that the turtles were in her life and she could not envision it any different.


	4. Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to speed up when Mona gets a lead about the Kraang.

            Raph did not want to admit it, but he really enjoyed the morning conversations he had with Mona. Despite what he told her the first morning, he really thought she would be nothing more than an annoyance to him. He liked the solitude in the morning and gave him some peace of mind from his brothers and their antics. However, she was nothing like them.

            She never played tricks on him and they actually had meaningful conversations. He recalled one time when they talked about her guns. She explained how she made her own ammo and preferred to use laser rounds instead of bullets. When Mona got into the details, she started to sound a lot like Donnie, naming off all sorts of technical terms. The only parts he picked up were the types of ammo she used, such as inferno, cryo, and stun rounds.

Despite her techy-ness, she was witty and he appreciated her sense of sarcasm and humor. Throughout their banters, they would make jabs at each other, all in good fun. Where Donnie, Leo, and Mikey would easily get offended, she laughed it off.

Raph even confided in her about Spike. He still held ill feelings about Spike turning into Slash and what he attempted to do to Raph’s brothers. He never tried to talk about it mostly because his brothers would never let Raph live it down. It was true he was the one with the impatient and uncouth attitude but he did have a softer side. Lucky for him, Mona did not laugh or made jokes about it. She consoled him in a way his brothers never could.

Though he could not admit it to anyone and it was hard for him to acknowledge it himself, over the past three weeks, he had fallen for Mona. He did not think it was possible for him to fall head over heels, but with her, it happened. Plus, she was cute.

Raph shook his head when that thought passed through his head. How was he going to tell her? Did she even feel the same way about him? He knew he had to tell her and the best time would be this morning. He looked at his T-phone to see what time it was and realized it was 4:45 am.

_Weird. She’s usually awake by now. Something must be up,_ he thought.

He made his way over to her bedroom door and pressed his ear against it. No sound at all. He lightly rapped the door.

“Mona, are you ok? You’re usually up by this time.”

“You can come in, Raph,” she softly replied.

He opened the door to a semi-dark room with Mona curled up in her bed with the sheets wrapped around her. Her back faced him, so he could not see her face.

“I’m sorry, Raph. I couldn’t get any sleep last night. I’m just too tired.”

A small smile appeared on Raph’s face, “That’s fine. Be sure to try and get some rest, ok?”

“Thanks, I will,” she whispered.

After he closed the door and Mona heard him walk away, she let the tears she held back flow. She was thankful her voice did not waiver when she spoke to him.

“I’m so sorry, Raph. I hope you’ll be able to forgive me,” she cried to herself.

* * *

The next day, Mikey, Raph, Leo and Donnie hung out in the lair. Donnie locked himself in his room working on the retro-mutagen while Mikey and Raph played one of their arcade games. As for Leo, he found reruns of “Space Heroes” and was consumed by the tales of his hero, Captain Ryan. There was not any activity from the Kraang recently, nor the Foot, so there was not much for the turtles to do.

There was not activity until Mona ran into the lair. She stopped in the center with her hands on her knees and out of breath. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she opened her mouth.

“Guys! I’ve found a lead on my brother!”

Leo turned off the TV and got up off the floor, “What did you find?”

“Apparently the Kraang will make an exchange with a research company tonight in a parking garage on the west side of the city. It’s some sort of polarizing technology.”

“Poles? What are the Kraang doing with poles?” Mikey wondered.

Suddenly, Donnie’s head popped out of his bedroom, “Did you say polarizing technology?”

Mona nodded.

Donnie stepped out of his room and moved over to the couch. “You see, there are some hypotheses in the scientific community that believe using pressure polarization can speed up the process of terraforming. The amount of energy needed to even complete such a…”

“Donnie,” Raph interrupted, “Take a good look at this face and tell me if it understood ANYTHING you just said!”

Donnie took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, “This device can speed up the Kraang’s plans. If done correctly, Earth can be completely transformed in the matter of hours!” Now Donnie was freaking out and waiving his hands in the air.

Raph gave a firm pat on Donnie’s shoulders, “See? How hard was that?”

“If this is the case, Mona, you’re going to need our help,” Leo offered.

“Thanks, guys. You’ve been nothing but helpful and patient with me through all of this.”

“No problem-o, Mona,” Mikey comforted, “You’re our friend and it’s what friends do.”

Mona involuntarily looked at the ground. _Friends, huh._ she thought to herself.

Raph noticed her gloomy disposition. “You ok, Mona? Maybe you’re coming down with something.”

Her eyes snapped back up and looked at Raph, giving him a weak smile, “I’m fine, Raph, really. Thank you for your concern, though.”

“Alright, everyone, let’s gear up and head out,” Leo ordered.

 

* * *

They made a perch on top of a building next to the parking garage Mona mentioned. It was completely empty save a white van parked on the top floor. After about half an hour of waiting, a second white van entered the complex and made its way up to the top. When it parked next to the other van, they made their move.

A handful of Normans got out of the first van to meet the two scientists to intercept the machinery. Just as the scientists opened the hatch of their van, the turtles and Mona made their entrance.

“Not so fast, Kraang!” Leo dynamically stated.

“Kraang, it is the ones known as the turtles and the one known as Mutant L to take the object known as the polarizer away from Kraang. Stop them!”

The scientists made a dash for it while the Normans lifted up their gums and began firing. Dodging and taking out the Normans was not a problem. When there were two left, they changed the tempo of the fight.

“It is time to summon the ones known as Mutants.”

“What a creative name,” Raph sneered.

Two bulky figures suddenly appeared from behind the Norman bodies. Like Kraang obviously stated, they were mutants but one looked like a human rhinoceros and wart hog. Their presence was foreboding as they stood nearly eight feet tall.

“Attack!” Kraang commanded.

The rhino and hog lunged themselves at the group. Their sheer strength forced the turtles to take them on in pairs. Raph and Mikey handled the hog while Leo and Donnie came face to face with the rhino.

Mona decided this would be the best time to take advantage of the situation and make a move on polarizer.

“You guys hold them off and I’ll work on the tech!”

While she did that, the turtles had their hands full keeping the grunts off. The rhino attacking Leo and Donnie was relentless. They had to be sure to avoid the horn unless they planned to be impaled by it. Leo made a few cuts on the beast but the thick hide prevented Leo from doing any damage. The rhino’s skull was also thick. No matter how many strikes Donnie made with his bo staff, the rhino remained conscious and concentrated. The look in its eyes were glazed over and not human anymore. It attacked with a sheer blood lust.

Raph and Mikey experienced the same kind of fervor with the hog. What he lacked in a thick skin like his compatriot, he gained with agility. Though he was a giant mutant, he could easily dodge the attacks Mikey and Raph laid on him. Raph could feel the hot and rancid breath blowing out its nose. It made Raph want to hurl over and loose his lunch. Mikey, on the other hand, did his best to restrain the hog with his nunchucks. Even wrapping them around the hog’s neck failed. He ended up tossing Mikey to the other side of the garage.

Mona disabled the remaining two Kraang with swift cryo shots to the head. They exploded, shooting ice shards in all directions. She looked back that the battle with the rhino and hog and only hoped the turtles could defeat them, but she doubted herself. Mona switched her focus back to the technology in front of her. She pulled out an external hard drive and plugged it into the machine. She quickly got to work on grabbing the schematics for the polarizer.

_I have hurry before the Kraang reinforcements arrive!_

Just as she thought that, her worst nightmare arrived. A couple of flying Kraangdroids reached on the scene. Luckily, the download finished and she stored the hard drive into her pouch.

_Everything is going exactly as planned._

Mona stepped out from the back the van and drew her guns. She closed her eyes and aimed at her targets: Raph and Mikey.

The two turtles barely saw the shots from the corners of their eyes. They jumped back and looked in the direction of where the shots came from.

Raph’s eyes opened in shock. They came from Mona. Leo and Donnie noticed the attack too but were too preoccupied with the rhino to do or say anything.

“What the shell are you doing? Ever heard of friendly fire?” he shouted at her.

She did not respond and her gaze was blank. Instead, she took a couple more shots at Raph. He blocked the shots with his sais, ricocheting them towards the hog. It caused the beast to waiver back, allowing Mikey to wrap one of his nunchucks around it. Mona took a step, then another, and another towards Raph.

Before he knew it, she rushed him and was in point blank range of his head. His quickly drew his head in his shell. It was a tactic he did not prefer to use but it just saved his life. He popped it back up and was able to kick her in the abdomen, knocking her back a good couple of feet.

“Why are you doing this, Mona?” Raph demanded.

She gave another frontal attack, this time, attempting to pistol whip Raph with the ends of her guns. He was able to block her attack, causing her guns to interlock with his sais. She was not able to move away from him.  

“Mona!” he pressed the question again.

“I need you to trust me,” she whispered just within ear shot.

“Trust you? You attacked me and Mikey!” he growled.

“I can explain this, Raph.”

“Then start explaining.”

“I can’t right now, but if you just trust me, I will,” she pleaded.

Raph looked down briefly. It was hard for him to look her straight in the eyes.

“Fine,” he muttered.

Mona managed to unhook her guns and jumped back from Raph. She mouthed a _thank you_ to him before turning to the flying Kraangdroids.

“Kraang, we should retreat before the polarizer becomes damaged.”

“The one which Kraang refers to as Mutant L has a point. It would be wise to fall back,” the bots agreed and finally flew away.

Mona whistled for the rhino and hog to hop in the back of the van and she took the driver’s seat. Once they loaded up, she floored it and sped the vehicle out of the parking garage. The turtles tried to chase after it but they could only go so far on foot. Leo even tried to throw shurriken at the tires but they missed.

“What happened?” Donnie asked in disbelief.

“What did she say to you, Raph?” Leo questioned.

Raph was not sure what to say. He was not sure himself about what happened but decided to not tell his brothers the whole truth.

“She’s working with the Kraang,” he simply stated.

“I can’t believe she did that!” Mikey cried, “She was our friend and we trusted her!”

Donnie consoled his younger brother, “I know, Mikey, it’s hard to believe.”

“Let’s get out of here, turtles. There isn’t much we can do tonight,” Leo holstered his katanas and walked off. His brothers followed, walking back to the lair wordlessly.

The entire trip back, Raph could not get the conversation with Mona out of his head. It replayed again, again, and again. It hurt to know she betrayed him, especially after he had taken a liking to her. However, there was a little voice of doubt sitting in the back of his head that kept asking the same question.

_What are you really up to?_

 


	5. To Trust or Not to Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can Mona's actions be forgiven or has she ruined the friendship she established?

_“I can explain this, Raph.”_

_“_ Why would Mona do this?”

_“I need you to trust me.”_

**_What are you up to?_ **

“She nearly blew Raph’s head off.”

_“…If you just trust me.”_

**_What are you up to?_ **

“There’s no way we can trust her now.”

**_Mona…_ **

 

“Raph, are you doing alright? You haven’t said a word since we’ve gotten back to the lair.”

He looked up with Leo standing in front of him on the couch looking down. He stood up to look his older brother in the eye.

 “Yeah, I’m fine,” he grumbled, “I’m going to go to bed.” He brushed past Leo, lightly knocking him out of his way. Raph tried not to show any real emotion to how he really felt. He was confused and hurt. He walked as fast as he could to his room without being too obvious. He slipped in, shut the door behind him, and sat his back against it. He could still hear his brothers talking in the living area.

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” Donnie asked.

“I hope so. He and Mona were really good friends,” Leo replied.

“He’s probably really bummed about her because he…” Mikey started to tease.

“Mikey, this isn’t a good time for that,” Leo interrupted him.

“It’ll be best if we just give him some space,” Donnie suggested.

Any conversation past that, Raph ignored. He walked over to his bed and plopped down on it. Raph ran countless scenarios through his head as to what she was up to, but nothing satisfied his curiosity. There was a good chance he would never know the truth, so why waste any more time thinking about it further?

Even though his brothers would think differently, he did sympathize with Mona. She was obviously doing this to save her brother at all costs. Of course, without knowing the circumstances, he could not say for sure if this was the best way of going about everything but he understood what she was doing. Raph would easily do anything to save his brothers if they were in trouble. He would not think twice before sacrificing his life if it meant guaranteeing their safety.

He could only hope that Mona would give him some explanation. He had no idea when he would see her next. It could be tomorrow, a few days from now, or even a few years.

Lucky for him, the opportunity happened a couple of days later. With no new Kraang activity, the turtles resumed their nightly patrols. They were moving from one stakeout spot to the next via rooftop when Leo suddenly stopped everyone.

“Hold up, turtles. We’re not alone here.”

“How astute of you, Leo. I’m surprised you sensed my presence.”

Mona appeared from behind a billboard panel from above and hopped down and landed in front of them. Mikey, Donnie and Leo instinctively drew their weapons. Raph was a bit hesitant to do so, but did just in case.

Mona took a step back in defense but did not draw her guns. She put her hands up in a surrendering gesture, “Whoa, guys, no need for the hostility. I know you’re mad at me but just give me a chance to explain everything.”

“Honestly, we can’t trust you. How do we know this isn’t an ambush?” Donnie pointed out.

“You don’t, but I would hope you’d trust your intuition to sense anyone else. Apparently Leo is really in tune with his.”

“You broke the sanctity of our friendship,” Mikey pointed his nunchucks at Mona, “You were one of my best friends. You were even like a sister to me!”

His words pierced Mona’s heart and Raph could see it on her face. It was obvious his brothers did not care to hear what she had to say.

_I need you to trust me._

“I think we should give her a chance to explain, guys,” Raph interjected, “There has to be more to this than what is on the surface.”

Mona gave Raph a frail smile as a thank you, “Please, just let me clarify everything.”

Leo sighed, “Alright, you’ve got once chance.” Donnie and Mikey nodded their heads in agreement.

Mona gave a sigh of relief, “I should start by telling you the whole truth. I’m actually a spy.”

“At least she can admit that,” Donnie spat.

Raph glared at his younger brother, “Donnie, let her finish.”

Mona ignored the interruption and continued, “My mother was a former CIA agent and she unfortunately made many enemies over time. My mother, Jeremy, and I were always on the run. Her key to our safety was to teach us the art of espionage. Jeremy wasn’t exactly great at it, so it was up to me to learn everything I could to keep him safe. This was especially the case when our mother was killed during one of her missions.

Jeremy and I were able to take care of ourselves. We got by on his salary as a student teacher but soon after he graduated with his PhD, we were captured by the Kraang. I tried my best to avoid them and get us to safety, but I was unsuccessful in protecting my brother and failed my mother.”

“So that’s when the Kraang mutated you, right?” Mikey asked, desperately trying to make sense of everything.

“For the most part, yes. They knew about my skills as a spy and forced me to use them against you. I never wanted it to come down to this, but I didn’t have any choice. You see, the Kraang will kill my brother if I don’t eliminate you. You’re a major threat to them and they won’t stop until you guys are gone,” Mona took a step forward and held her arms out in a begging gesture, “I hate the Kraang more than anything! The only way I can get my brother back is to act as a double agent. So please, turtles, I need your help.”

“So whose side do you plan to take in the end?” Donnie inquired, arms crossed and still skeptical.

“Yours, of course! Even though you may not think this now, but I consider you to be my friends. You taught me to be comfortable with my mutation and showed me nothing but kindness,” she looked down at the ground shamefully, “And _I_ repay you like this. I know I’m asking a lot, but I hope you can find it in you to forgive me.”

Leo had an upsetting look on his face, “We were quick to judge, Mona, and we should be the ones saying sorry to you. We completely overlooked the situation and just assumed you were a bad guy.”

Even Donnie let up on his suspicion, “Yeah, we’re sorry.”

“So you’ll help me?”

“Of course we will,” Raph responded.

Mona lightly nodded at Raph, “Thank you so much. So you’ll help me with my next plan then?”

“Sure. What do you intend to do?” Leo probed.

Mona motioned for the turtles to follow her to another part of the roof as she explained: “The Kraang are eager to take you guys out, but they are also intrigued by your physiology. I plan to bring one of you back with me under the guise of experimental exploits. **Not only will it put me in the favor of Kraang,** it’ll also give you the motivationto rescue your brother. They’ll realize the ‘kidnapping’ will draw the rest of you to them and they’ll plan to set up an ambush.”

“Uh, so, who’s gonna be the lucky winner?” Mikey posed.

“I’ll take Raph with me,” Mona bluntly stated.

All eyes fell on Raph, “Why me?”

“Why not? You’re the strongest and would pose the greatest disadvantage to your brothers,” she responded.

“Makes sense,” Leo muttered.

Mona walked behind Raph and firmly grabbed both of his arms and tightly tied them together with rope. It was not enough to restrict blood flow to his hands but it was definitely an uncomfortable position.

“So where will we meet you?” Donnie asked.

Mona let out a faint giggle, “I can’t tell you that. It would be too easy. Kraang will realize I gave you the location and it’ll all be over for me and my brother. What I can do, however, is give you this.”

Mona pulled out a hard drive and handed it over to Donnie.

“That drive holds the schematics for the polarizer. Based on its specs, you should easily figure out where I’m taking Raph. The only catch is that the information is heavily encrypted,”

“Should be easy enough,” Donnie bragged.

“We’ll see about that,” Mona teased, “Now it’s time to use your brains to save your brawn. Good luck, guys!”

Mona grasped Raph and took a few steps back. She reached around him, grabbed one of his smoke grenades and threw it to the ground. When the smoke dissipated, they were gone.

“Great, how are we going to explain this to Splinter?” Mikey nervously inquired.

“Hopefully it won’t take me long to decrypt the code,” Donnie reassured.

“Then let’s get back to the lair and get Raph back,” Leo proposed. He added under his breath, “I hope nothing bad happens to him.”

 

////

 

Raph surprised Mona in his willingness to come with her. She expected a little bit of a struggle with him since he could easily be hotheaded, but he walked wherever she pushed him and did not complain one bit. On the other hand, he was quite inquisitive since their departure.

“Are you sure this is going to work?”

“No plan is 100 percent full proof, Raph, but this one is pretty darn close.”

“So are we going to the facility where they’re holding your brother?”

“No, he’s not here. The polarizer the Kraang acquired is, but not him. He’s doing his work in another location; I’m still trying to figure out exactly where.”

“Wait, so their base of operations is in the Statue of Liberty?”

Mona stopped them both. They stood on the edge of a dock right across from Liberty Island, looking up at the iconic structure. The moonlight reflected the patina hue right on the river’s surface. It looked calm and serene, nothing like Raph’s gut feeling about everything. He did not mind helping Mona by acting as her hostage, but he sensed a greater danger ahead of him.

“Below, actually,” Mona pointed out, snapping Raph out from his thoughts, “They built an underwater facility right under the statue. It’s bigger than most of the Kraang’s lairs, but definitely not their largest.”

“That would be the technodrome, right?” Raph remembered the massive war ship. They barely escaped from Kraang Prime and nearly lost Leo in the process. The ship crashed down and sank underwater and Raph hoped he would never have to see it again.

“Exactly. It’s still stuck on the bottom of the river and has been problematic for the Kraang to recover. The place we’re going to is their next big operation.”

“So how do we get there?”

“You ask way too many questions for your own good,” Mona chided and then pushed Raph into the water, “We swim, of course.”

She jumped in herself and grabbed Raph’s restraints, holding most of his upper body above the water since he could not wade himself. Raph started to ask her how he was going to swim but she beat him to the punch.

“I’ll direct you where to go and you make sure you kick your feet. It won’t take us long to get to the entrance.”

She gave a nod and the two dove under. It was hard to see what was around them due to the darkness, but Raph made out a light glow coming from in front of him. As they swam closer, he could make out the obscure structure. It was a triangular metal building with laser cannons protruding randomly across the surface. There were no visible windows or doors as far as Raph could tell. His doubts were quickly countered when they swam to one of the points of the structure and it opened up for them, allowing them to enter.

They swam into a small chamber that started to drain the water once the door closed behind them. Afterwards, Mona helped Raph climb onto a platform and led him down a hallway to an unknown destination.

“So I have one more question for you, Mona. Exactly how is Donnie going to figure out where this place is?”

“Well, because of its…”

 

/////

 

“Because of its structure, the polarizer uses high amounts of pressure to transform the terrain around it, causing a change to its molecular structure,” Donnie explained.

Back at the lair, Donnie wasted no time getting to work on the encryption. It took him nearly an hour to crack it, but he got through. He thoroughly studied the schematics of the polarizer and was in the process of spelling out how it worked and how they would find Raph and Mona’s location.

“So you’re saying if we find the areas with high amounts of built up pressure, we’ll find out where they are?” Leo reiterated.

“Exactly, Leo,” Donnie confirmed, “I’ve already looked into that and noticed strange readings coming from the area around the Statue of Liberty.”

“The Statue of Liberty? You don’t think the Kraang took control of her and plan to use her as a giant mech against the city, do you? She could shoot pressure waves at everything!” Mikey fanaticized.

“You know what, Mikey, that actually could be a possibility,” Donnie could not believe he was entertaining the idea, but there was some rationality to it.

“Either that or the Kraang are fixing the technodrome,” Leo pointed out.

Donnie scrapped the mech idea and concurred that Leo’s theory was much more logical.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go get Raph!”

 

/////

 

Raph lost all track of time since Mona locked him up in a containment cell sitting in a large chamber. There were other cells like it and they formed a circle around a giant mechanism that shot skywards. In the center of it, a glass container held some sort of neon green liquid. Raph guessed it was mutagen but it was different from the blue one he seen before.

As for Mona, Raph had no idea where she ran off too after she locked him up. She just told him to sit and wait, not saying anything. She at least could have untied him. He did not like the feeling he was getting but he was going to trust her.

Another unknown amount of time passed before Raph heard a faint rap from the other side of the room.

“Look! There he is!”

Mikey hopped down from a vent in the ceiling and ran to Raph. Donnie and Leo soon followed.

“Raph, where’s Mona?” Donnie questioned and he got to work on unlocking the cell door.

Raph shrugged, “I’m not sure. She’s around here somewh…”

A large boom cut Raph out. Donnie almost finished the code crack when he was flung across the room by a large figure. He hit the wall hard and the wind was instantly knocked out of him. When he gained his breath again, he looked up at his adversary. It was the same rhino mutant that attacked them back in the parking garage.

Just as Donnie was hit, Leo felt a hot breath down his neck. A split second later, he lunged to his left. When he looked out of the corner of his eye, a clawed fist appeared just where his head was. He drew his katanas and turned towards the attacker. It was the hog.

Mikey turned around just as everything happened. He took a few steps back until his shell hit Raph’s cell. There was clear panic in Mikey’s eyes and he was not sure what to do. He decided help Donnie, attacking the rhino and giving Donnie enough time to recover from the blow.

Raph was infuriated. He pounded his fist against the wall of his cage but he was completely helpless.

_Mona, where the shell are you?_

Leo, Mikey and Donnie surprisingly held their own against the two mutants without Raph’s help but it was obvious they struggled. They were constantly on the defense. The beasts’ strength were unlike anything they’ve been up against before. Every strike was forceful and unrelenting. Leo knew if they continued at this rate, they’d stand no chance. He had to approach this from a different angle.

He examined his surroundings to see what he could use. If he could draw at least one of the mutants into an empty cell and lock him up, they could easily tag-team against the other. Which one could they take on by themselves? Leo decided on the hog.

“Donnie, Mikey! Get that rhino over towards the cells!” Leo ordered.

Without question, the two obeyed their older brother’s command and lured the beast. They instinctively knew what he was planning. In the meantime, Leo distracted the hog. Mikey and Donnie had a difficult time attracting the rhino’s attention to where they wanted him but eventually made it. They needed a distraction in order to knock him into the trap. Luckily, Raph had that covered.

“Hey! Thick skull! Over here!”

The rhino turned towards Raph. His interference was enough for Mikey to kick the rhino into the cell and while Donnie closed the door and locked it. They then turned their attention to Leo and the hog, working together to take the mutant pig out. Moments later, droves of Kraang reinforcements arrived, guns blazing, as well as Mona. While the turtles, pig, and the Kraang fought each other, Mona made her way over to Raph.

“Took you long enough to come back,” Raph complained.

“Sorry, the plans changed. I needed to come up with a contingency plan,” Mona defended her actions. She moved towards the keypad and entered the code, unlocking the door. She walked in, grabbed Raph by his restraints, and moved him out.

“Where are we going?” Raph asked.

They moved a little ways away from cell. Mona took note of the situation. The turtles managed to temporarily knock out the pig and now worked on taking out the last few Kraangbots. The turtles were completely unaware of the danger approaching them. She had to get them out of there.

Mona drew one of her guns and loaded it with stun rounds. She placed it a few inches from the back of Raph’s head: “I hope you can forgive me, Raph. This’ll hurt a lot when you wake up.”

She pulled the trigger and with a loud bang, Raph fell to the floor, unconscious.

Mikey’s eyes widened with shock and disbelief, “Raph!”

Leo was closest and ran over to Raph’s body. He picked up his brother and checked his pulse, “What did you do to him!?”

Mona tried her best to remain calm as she holstered her gun, “Take Raph and get out of here, NOW!”

Before Mona knew it, she was tackled to the ground with a staff holding her neck down. Donnie was on top of her and furious. She tried her best to push against him but he held his staff steady.

“How could you!” he shouted.

“I didn’t have a choice! I’m trying to get you guys out of here!”

“We don’t need your help!”

“Donnie! Let’s go!” Leo called out. Donnie glanced behind him and Mikey and Leo carried Raph’s limp body towards an exit. He looked back towards Mona and grunted as he released her. He took a few steps back before turning around and ran to his brothers. They needed to get Raph back to the lair, and fast. Time was of the essence.


	6. Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything starts to come together as Mona makes an attempt to save her brother, Jeremy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is the penultimate chapter for Mutant L! However, this is not the end of Mona's story. I plan to write another story which will sum up everything for her, as well as write a fun one-shot with her and Raph. I also plan to write more stories about the other TMNT characters, intertwining their stories together as they fight more enemies, new and old. Mona will make some appearances in these stories, but more as a minor character. I'm still working on an organization method for these stories, so please be patient with me. Enjoy reading!

             Everything was black. Pitch black.

            _“That’s it! We’re not trusting her again!”_

            He tried his best to search for a light source but he fumbled around finding nothing.

_“I can’t believe it. She just shot Raph point plank in the back of the head.”_

            He felt his body move uncontrollably and he heard everything around him but he could not find the light. He could not wake up.

            _“Luckily he’s just unconscious. Get him to bed stat and we’ll take turns checking in on him.”_

            Finally, everything went still. His body stopped moving and the voices went away. Though he could not hear anything, he still felt some sort of presence around him. Suddenly, a faint light appeared in the distance. He moved towards it, getting closer to its warmth.

            Raph slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Mona, sitting on his bed, in his room. His awakening startled her slightly and she turned to face him. Her face was slightly pale and she had a worried look on her face.

            “How do you feel?”

            Raph lifted himself up and leaned his shell against his bed post. The moment he settled himself, and excruciating pain struck him. His head flooded with sharp throbs and caused his vision to blur a little. He brought his hands to his face and moved them to the back of his head, trying to make it go away. He noticed his mask was replaced with head bandages and also felt a large bump near the nape of his neck.

            “I feel like I was hit by a subway train,” he moaned.

            “You sure look like it,” she lightly teased. Mona leaned over and grabbed a glass of water and medicine from his night table: “Here, take this. It’ll help with the pain.”

            Raph popped the pills and washed them down. It would take a few minutes for the effect to kick in but he could deal with the pain until then.

            He looked to Mona and noticed the long look on her face.

            “What’s wrong?”

            Her head lowered slightly, “I’m so sorry about how this turned out. I couldn’t blow my cover.”

            “You apologize too much, you know that, right?” he consoled and placed a hand on her shoulder.

            “I’m sorry I…” she caught herself and laughed it off, “You’re right, I do. I just feel obligated to say sorry for all my actions recently. Everything I’ve done has been questionable; I’ve hurt you in more ways than one, and I’m sure your brothers hate me for it.”

            “I understand what you’re doing, Mona. I would do the same for my brothers. You have nothing to apologize for.”

            “Thanks, Raph. That means a lot to me,” she smiled.

            She shifted her weight and moved a little closer to Raph. The smile on her face created a sparkle of enthusiasm in her eyes. The combination of the sudden move and the look on her face caused Raph’s heart to skip a beat.

            “I’m so close to finding my brother, Raph,” she continued, “I just have to follow up on a few more leads before I know for sure.”

            “And when you do, I’ll be there too,” he paused for a moment. Did he just say what he thought he did? He started to stammer in attempts to find a way to recover from his blunder, “An...And my brothers, even if I have to drag them along.”

            What was he thinking? He liked Mona a lot but it was impossible for him to come right out and tell her. He was not the mushy feeling type and he could not think of a way of confessing to her without sounding like a blubbering idiot.

            “Your too kind, Raph,” Mona laughed, “I’m so grateful that you’ve trusted me through all of this. I’m not sure where I’d be if I hadn’t met you.”

            Mona reached down and grabbed Raph’s hand. His heart began to pound fiercely within his chest. It beat so wild and loud, he was afraid Mona could hear it. He looked into her blazing blue eyes and his heart pumped faster. She was beautiful and perfect in every way to him and he wanted to tell her that desperately. Perhaps if he directly came out and said it…

            “Mona, I just…I need to,” he stammered, “I want to tell you that I li…”

            She placed a hand on his face and softly caressed his cheek. Raph wanted to say something, _anything_ , but a large lump settled in his throat. Mona leaned closer into him and planted a soft kiss on his lower lip. Her delicate skin on his sent him into euphoria and the pain in his head instantaneously went away. He moved his hands around her waist and drew her closer to him, kissing her back sensually. Mona moved her hand around Raph’s neck and down his shoulders, intensifying the passion. Time seemed to stop with Mona in his arms but in reality, only a couple dozen seconds passed.

            A knock came from Raph’s door, snapping the two out of their bliss. Mona quickly drew back with a gasp and jumped off the bed.

            “Hey, Raph. Are you awake?”

            It was Mikey.

            “Quick, hide!” Raph whispered to Mona.

            Just as she wordlessly slipped into Raph’s closet, Mikey opened the bedroom door. The transition was seamless and Mikey was completely unaware of her presence.

            “How’s the head? I left you some medicine on your nightstand.”

            “It helped a lot, Mikey. It’s practically gone,” Raph half-lied.

            Mikey smiled widely, “I’m glad you’re ok, bro. I was really worried about ya. We won’t let Mona get near you again.”

            Raph laughed in his head. If only he knew.

            “I’ll be fine, Mikey,” he grinned, “Thanks.”

            “Be sure to get lots of rest, okay?”

            “I will.”

            Once Mikey left his room, Raph put his mask back on, slowly got up from his bed and walked over to his closet.

            “Alright, Mona, you can come out now,” he said as he opened the door.

            She was gone.

            Raph looked around but there was no sign of her. He looked up and noticed pipes running through his closet and a loose grate. That was how she got in and out of the lair without anyone noticing. What a clever girl.

* * *

            Donnie worked continuously throughout the night, trying to find more information about the Kraang’s terraforming schemes. He was going to find out their plan without any more help from that traitor. He tirelessly typed away on his computer, researching scholarly articles about pressure polarization terraforming and the schematics _she_ gave him.

            He could not even say her name, he was that mad. He found it funny when Raph got what was coming to him but this stunt went WAY over the edge. There was no way he could trust her, not anymore.

            He hit the keys on his keyboard irately the more he kept thinking about the subject. During these wrathful thoughts, he hit “enter” and his screen froze. He pounded the key over and over again but it only made things worse. The screen turned blue.

            “No, no, no, no!” he screamed in panic, “You can’t do this now!”

            The display blinked and his work reappeared, but this time, a video window popped up with Mona on it.

            “Hey, Donnie,” she greeted.

            Donnie was taken aback, “Did you just _hack_ into my computer?! How did you…”

            “You don’t operate on a secured network. I thought you of all people would know better than that. Getting in was way too easy,” she sneered.

            “What do you want?” Donnie spat.

             “I found out where my brother is.”

             “And I care, why?”

             “Because it’s where the Kraang are performing their terraforming experiments and I know you want to find out exactly what they’re doing.”

             Donnie considered what she told him but he was not going to give in. He would find out what he needed on his own without her help.

              “No thanks. I’ll figure it out myself.”

              “I figured you’d say that, Donnie. Sad thing is, I’m gonna give it to you anyways. Meet me at these coordinates in two hours,” she brought up a GPS map with the location.

             “You know we won’t meet you there. I can find the Kraang facility on my own,” he retorted with his arms crossed.

             Mona leaned in towards her web camera a little, attempting to look Donnie in the eye, “Oh, you will. I’m freezing your computer until you meet me.”

             Donnie gasped, “Then I’ll just hack through your hack!”

            “Go ahead and try. I know you won’t get past this bit of Kraang technology. See you guys soon!” she mocked and then her image disappeared from the screen. And to add insult to injury, a flood of cute animals, hearts, rainbows and cupcakes bounced all round his monitors.

            Donnie screamed out of frustration and stormed out of his lab, causing Leo, Raph and Mikey to turn their heads towards their vexed brother.

            “Puppies and kittens?! I can’t believe she had the _audacity_ to even do this!” he vented.

            “What’s wrong, Donnie?” Leo asked.

            Donnie turned to Leo and gave him an evil stare down, “What’s wrong? WHAT’S WRONG? Mona Lisa just hacked and froze my computer!”

            Raph just sat there and laughed aloud. This was one of the reasons he liked her. He knew the circumstances were not a laughing matter, but the way Donnie flailed his arms around was too hilarious.

             “It’s not funny, Raph!” Donnie screamed.

            “Yeah, dude,” Mikey agreed, “She just shot you in the head.”

            “You guys are the ones who have a problem with her,” he pointed out, “She’s just trying to find her brother and you’d rather be mad at her than do anything about it.”

            “She’s going about it in a very dangerous way. Plus I don’t see you doing anything about it, Raph,” Leo criticized.

            Raph sat up and started to walk over towards Donnie’s lab: “Knowing her, she probably left some sort of location for us to meet with her.”

            Donnie stepped in front of Raph, blocking him from the lab entrance: “What if she didn’t?” he bluffed. He did not want Raph to go out, especially in his condition. He knew his older brother was thick headed and he wanted to protect him from her.

            “Oh, she did, Donnie,” Raph saw through the ruse, “If I wanted to tick you off beyond belief, I would deny you the satisfaction of finding something out on your own. Mona clearly did that.”

            He pushed past Donnie and entered the lab. He walked up to the computer and noticed the map with the blinking red dot through the cutesy images bouncing around the screen. Raph knew exactly where the location was. He turned towards the garage door to leave when Leo came up behind him and grabbed his arm.

            “Raph, you can’t go out there to meet her. Not in your condition.”

            Raph jerked his arm out of Leo’s hand and angrily turned towards him: “She needs our help, Leo! Where’s your almighty sense of justice?”

            “Justice doesn’t involve hurting people to get what you want! She’s more than capable of handling herself anyways.”

            “You may not agree with her methods but she’s trying to save her brother. Would you not do the same for us if it came down to it?”

            Leo hesitated. He would do anything for his younger brothers. Deep down, helping Mona was the right thing to do but she was too unpredictable. Raph’s mind was not going to be swayed, so it seemed like Leo had no choice.

            “I’ll have to trust you on this, Raph. If she turns on us again, that’s it.”

            “You’re being completely unreas - wait, you’re going to trust me?”

            “Yes, I am. Don’t make me regret this, alright?”

            Raph placed his hand on Leo’s shoulder, “Thanks, bro.”

            “Alright, turtles. Let’s move out,” Leo directed.

            Donnie came up next to Leo, “This isn’t a good idea.”

            “I know, but I’m going to have faith that Raph’s right about all of this.”

* * *

             Mona waited impatiently in a dark alley across from the underground Kraang facility. She was not completely sure the turtles would arrive, but she hoped like crazy they would. It was impossible for her to infiltrate the building alone. This was one of their high clearance areas where only a few Kraang, including the Prime, knew of. She really needed Donnie’s expertise to hack the security systems and having numbers on the Kraang was a smart idea. She knew all too well what would happen if she engaged the Kraang by herself.

            She poked her head around the corner and glanced at the time displayed at the bank across the street. It had been twenty minutes past the two hours she gave Donnie. She had to face it; they were not going to show up.

            She hoped, at the very least, Raph would show up but no dice. Either he had trouble convincing his brothers to come with him or everything they shared between them was a complete and utter lie. She hoped like heck it was the former. She cared a lot for him and it would be heartbreaking if he led her on for whatever ulterior reasons.

            Facing defeat, she turned and walked towards the fire escape ladder to one of the buildings. Just as she started climbing, four dark figures jumped down behind her.

            _It couldn’t be,_ she thought in disbelief.

            “Going somewhere, Mona?” Raph quipped.

            She jumped down and turned around to face them: “I can’t believe you actually came.”

            Leo stepped forward, “It took some convincing from Raph, but we’re going to give you one more chance, Mona. No unexpected moves this time around. We get your brother out of there first, so there won’t be any reason for you to keep your cover.”

            “And then you’ll give me back my computer,” Donnie added.

            Mona laughed, “Deal. Thank you, I really appreciate this.”

            Then, unexpectedly, Mikey threw himself at Mona, giving her a huge bear hug: “Welcome back to the team, sis! Now let’s go kick some Kraang butt!”

            With that, Mona led them stealthily across the street to the abandoned building. There was a widow ajar that they all could slip through to get inside. She checked to make sure no one was around before instructing everyone to move in. Once inside, she motioned Donnie over to hack into the security system panel, which was cleverly disguised as a breaker box.

            “This’ll take me a few minutes to get into. Just sit tight and don’t let Mikey wander off.”

            Coincidentally, Mikey already started to meander, looking through doors and eager to investigate. Leo gave him a condescending glare and he promptly shut the door, laughing nervously.

            After a few minutes of waiting, Donnie successfully got into the systems and shut them off. From there, Mona led them down the stairs to a hallway. If Mona’s calculations were correct, the hallway would dump out into a chamber where her brother was being held. It should also contain the polarizer and whatever terraforming contraption the Kraang were working on.

            And she was spot on. They stopped right at the threshold of the room in order to make a plan of attack. They took a good look at the area in front of them. There were a few Kraangbots in the room patrolling. Mona frantically looked for her brother. It took her a while to spot him, but he stood next to a control panel on top of a platform on the second level.

            “He’s up there,” Mona pointed out to Leo.

            Leo nodded his head in acknowledgement, “Alright, here’s the plan: Mona, you’ll go grab your brother and we’ll cover you. The goal is to get in and out as quick as possible.”

            “You know that’ll never happen,” Raph scoffed.

            “Well, we’ll try,” Leo retorted.

            “And be careful if Bebop and Rocksteady join the fight,” Mona warned.

            “Who?” all four turtles asked in unison.

            “The mutant hog and rhino, respectively. Did I forget to mention them earlier?”

            “Yes!” they all roared.

            Mona nervously laughed it off, “Whoops.”

           Leo just rolled his eyes, “Now move out.”

            Mona did not hesitate and made haste. She easily slipped past the Kraangbots, mostly because Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey provided a distraction for her. The shots fired from the Kraang’s guns echoed. Mona looked up at her brother, who busily worked away at something, oblivious to the events happening around him.

            She found an access ladder and used that to get up to the next floor, taking out a couple Kraangbots on the way with swift shots to the head. Once she reached the top, the path was clear to Jeremy. Mona’s heart raced. It was the first time she had seen her brother since their capture **.** It would also be the first time Jeremy would see her as a mutant. Once she approached the platform, she took gentle steps towards her brother.

            “Hello, Jeremy.”

            He suddenly stopped what he was working on and froze: “Mona?” he skeptically questioned as he slowly turned around. He had not changed at all since she last saw him. He was still tall and lanky, and his hair ash brown and unkempt. He still sported the thick plastic framed glasses she got him for his birthday a couple years back and he wore a white lab coat similar to what he had when he worked on his doctoral degree.

            The moment he saw her, his eyes grew in shock. Mona expected something like this to happen and she was prepared with a response.

            “I know it doesn’t look like it, but it is me, Jeremy. The Kraang mutated me into a lizard.”

            Jeremy’s face turned white and his jaw dropped, and Mona was not sure if it was from utter surprise or fear.

            “They said you were dead, Mona, that you took your own life.”

            She was taken aback, “Why would I ever do that?”

            “The Kraang said that you refused to be taken captive and ended up killing yourself to keep your secrets hidden forever. They said you died like a true agent. But you’re really alive. Alive! I…I can’t really believe it, this mutation of yours. Does it hurt?”

            Mona shook her head, “It felt awkward but I’ve gotten used to it. Now, as much as I’d like to have a sentimental family reunion, I’ve got to get you out of here.”

            “Get me out of here? Why would you want to do that?” Jeremy questioned her intentions.

            “I’m here to rescue you. The Kraang are using you as a slave for their experiments!” she blurted out.

            Jeremy’s face wore an expression of confusion: “What are you talking about, Mona? The Kraang are giving me all the materials I need to conduct my research!” his eyes lit up with excitement, “Every corner I took with my research at the university, I always hit red tape. I was tremendously limited in supplies and my research was a total farce compared to what I’m doing here.”

            Mona’s mind erupted in fury. Jeremy was _working_ with the Kraang? How could he? They physically tortured and blackmailed her to work for them under the guise of killing him off.

            “No more games, Jeremy. I’m getting you out of here,” she burst out in rage and took a few steps towards him. Before she knew it, Jeremy pulled a gun out and aimed it at her head.

            “Don’t make me do this, Mona. I can’t leave my research behind, not at this point.”

            Mona instinctively put her hands up, trying not to enrage her brother further: “No need to escalate things, brother. Just put the gun down and we’ll talk thi- ”

            “No!” he yelled, pointing the gun closer to Mona. Jeremy was obviously attached to his research and had no intentions of leaving it.

            This was the last straw. Mona was done playing games. She looked out the side of her eyes. The turtles were still busy fighting off the Kraang on this level. She needed to make her move fast.

            “You know you won’t shoot me.”

            “You may be an excellent marksman like Mom was, but she taught me how to shoot too. I can, and _will_ shoot you if you take another step closer.”

            Mona had a gut feeling that Jeremy would not shoot. She knew he did not have the guts to pull the trigger on her because if he did, he would have no other family in his life. She was sure that was not something he could deal with, so she decided to call his bluff.

            As she took a step forward, her body weight abruptly shifted as Raph tackled her off the platform. Not even a second later, a shot fired from Jeremy’s gun and landed in the wall behind where Mona formally stood. Jeremy dropped the gun and took the opportunity to make a run for it.

            Mona and Raph tumbled to the first floor, rolling to help break the fall.

            “What the shell did you do that for, Raph?” she yelled, “I had it all under control!”

            “I don’t know, maybe to save your life?! Your brother was going to shoot you!”

            “I don’t need saving!” she continued to scream, “And now Jeremy has gotten away! Thanks a lot, Raph!”

            Raph took a deep breath to try to calm his anger, “Look, Mona, I’m sorry…”

            “Save it,” Mona interrupted him, “I don’t want to hear it.”

* * *

            Donnie decided that these few Kraangbots were much harder to fight than the ones in the past. It took teamwork and a few good hits to take them out.

            After taking out the one nearest to him, he noticed two Kraang that entered a little alcove higher up and out of reach. They talked as one held some device in their hand, and Donnie overheard the entire conversation.

            “It is obvious that the one known as Mutant L has betrayed Kraang. It is time to activate phase two of the experiment called Mutagen L. The one known as Mutant L will act just like the ones known as Mutant B and Mutant R.”

            “Yes, she will take out the ones known as the Turtles. Mind control is fun to Kraang” the other responded.

            _Mutants B and R?_ Donnie thought. _Where have I heard…_

            Then it hit him. Mona had to have been mutated with the same mutagen as Bebop and Rocksteady, which apparently had some mind controlling elements to it. Donnie had to warn his brothers! As he started to open his mouth, he noticed Raph tackling Mona, saving her from the gunshot Jeremy released.

            Donnie looked up to the Kraang and the one pushed the button on the device.

            _Oh no! Raph!!_

            Donnie sprinted as fast as could.


	7. Fighting for Our Lives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter of "Mutant L". I would like to thank everyone who read this story and I hope you enjoyed it. This is only the end of Part One of what I'm calling "Mona Lisa's Ballad." I hope you'll read and like my other fics too. Since is the last chapter, I would love to hear your comments on what you thought of the story. Again, thanks a bunch and enjoy the last chapter!

“Save it. I don’t want to hear it,” Mona turned her back towards Raph.

“Mona…” he started to say.

“Raph! Get back!” Donnie yelled. He was running towards him, but why?

Out of the corner of Raph’s eye, he saw flashes of red and blue coming towards his face. Mona was firing at him rapidly. Raph ricocheted some of the shots with his sais but he had to jump back to dodge the majority of them.

“Mona! Snap out of it! What are you doing?” Raph yelled at her.

His words were not getting through. The look in her eyes was blank and lifeless; her body’s movements off beat and unfamiliar. Raps was not sure what in her head clicked differently, but she was coming at him with a lethal force.

The shots from Mona’s guns were accurate but she fired them in such a rapid succession that she quickly ran out of ammo. Once she realized this she ran straight towards Raph, engaging him in hand-to-hand combat, guns in hand. She made a few attempts to bludgeon him in the face but he blocked her hits with his sai. She was relentless and kept trying to punch and kick him, getting a few hits in but it did not knock Raph down. She finally swept the floor with her leg, bringing Raph down to the floor with a loud thud.

Before he could get up, Mona was on top of him. She discarded her guns and began wrestling with Raph, putting all her weight on him. He held his arms out, trying to keep her hands from his face. Mona pushed down with so much force, her hands started to go through the prongs on his sais.

Her face did not alter, showing no pain or discomfort. Blood ran down her hands and dripped on Raph’s unsettled face. He began to lose control of his body which allowed Mona to disarm the sai from his right hand. She ripped the prong from her hand, grabbed the handle and struck it into Raph’s right shoulder, impaling him. His shell blocked the sai from going any further.

Raph screamed out in pain. It was unlike anything he felt before. He could feel the muscles in his shoulder pulsing around the blade, excruciatingly pinging with every beat of his racing heart. It started to expand to the rest of his body, causing him to involuntarily drop his other sai to the floor. Mona swept in and picked it up, bringing the blade to his neck. He could feel the metal slowly cutting his skin. Raph realized this was his final moment and he closed his eyes, accepting his fate.

When he expected finality, the weight of Mona disappeared and he saw Donnie standing above him, eyes wide and disturbed at the sight beneath him. His younger brother bent down and grabbed the handle of the sai in his shoulder.

“This is going to hurt,” Donnie warned him and then ripped the weapon away. Raph screamed again and felt the warmth of his blood escape him. His vision blurred and he was on the edge of consciousness. Donnie unwrapped the bandages from his hand and wrist and shoved them in the gaping hole. While he did that, Mikey and Leo appeared.

“Leo, Mikey, give me your hand and wrist wraps, quick! Then I’ll need you to keep Mona busy while I dress this wound,” Donnie ordered.

“What happened here?” Mikey asked.

“No time to explain! Just give me your wraps!” Donnie shouted.

They handed the bandages to Donnie and ran off. Raph had no idea what was going on other than Donnie trying to stop him from bleeding out. Donnie slightly lifted his shoulder up and started to wrap the dressings around. Between the amount of blood he lost and the pain from being moved around, Raph finally blacked out.

“Mikey, I need your help over here,” Donnie called out as he tried to lift Raph’s body.

His brother ran over and helped him bear the weight. They placed one of Raph’s arms around their necks and started to make their exit.

“Get Raph out of here!” Leo demanded, “I’ll hold off Mona.”

Donnie glanced over to their fight and it was difficult for his eyes to keep up with the speed they moved at.

“We need to hurry and get back to the lair, Mikey, before Raph bleeds to death.”

Mikey nodded, “Alright, but how are we going to get there? The lair is too far away for us to carry him.”

Donnie let out a long sigh, “I can’t believe I’m going to suggest this, but we’re going to have to break into a car or something. It’s the only way we can get back without losing Raph.”

They finally made their way back up to the surface. Donnie worriedly looked around for a car and noticed an old clunker across the street. He checked up and down the street to make sure no one was around before moving Raph across it. He asked Mikey to take Raph for a moment while he smashed the driver side window and unlocked the car. He pulled the back seat door opened and helped Mikey load Raph in the back seat. He instructed to Mikey to keep Raph’s shoulder elevated above his heart to help stop the bleeding.

While Mikey did that, Donnie got to work on hotwiring the car. He had never done this before but he found it easy to do and had the car started in no time. Right as he turned the car on, Leo came out of the abandoned building. He was beat up but he was alright. Donnie ran over to the passenger side and got in, allowing Leo to take the wheel. They wasted no time and sped off down the dark streets of the city.

“How’s he holding up?” Leo anxiously asked.

“I’m not sure,” Mikey responded, his voice wavering, “His body’s really cold and his pulse is barely there.”

“What exactly happened, Donnie?” Leo addressed his other brother.

Donnie looked down at the floorboard, “Mona was being manipulated by the Kraang. I think the mutagen she was mutated with had some brainwashing element to it. There’s some of her blood on Raph’s sai, so I’ll have to take a closer look at it when we get Raph back and stabilized.”

A few minutes later, they arrived at the manhole cover closest to the lair. Leo was lucky he was not pulled over by the police, especially since he drove at an extremely illegal speed in a stolen car. He and Donnie jumped out of the car and helped Mikey get Raph out, gingerly carrying him over to the sewer entrance. Hindsight being 20/20, Leo realized they needed to climb down a ladder to get to the lair. He offered to carry Raph entirely down the ladder. Mikey went down first in order to catch Raph’s body just in case it fell and Donnie followed Leo, making sure the coast was clear.

Once down, they all grabbed Raph and ran him to the garage door to Donnie’s lab, placing him on one of the empty tables.

“Raph’s lost too much blood,” Donnie stated, “I need one of you to stay here and give some of your blood to him.”

“I’ll do it,” Leo volunteered, “Mikey, go get Master Splinter. He needs to know what happened.”

“Rodger,” Mikey replied and raced out of the lab.

Leo walked over to Donnie, “What do I need to do?”

“Grab another table and place it next to Raph and lie down,” Donnie instructed, “I’ll have to do a direct transfusion while I close this wound.”

“Do whatever it takes, Donnie.”

Once Leo lied down, Donnie situated his arm around and carefully inserted a hypodermic needle with an attached tube into his vein. It connected to an IV bag and Leo’s blood started to collect. After that, he took another tube, attached it to the other side of the IV bag, and inserted a separate needle into Raph’s arm. Then he hooked him up to a monitor to observe his vitals. They were dangerously low, but Raph was still alive.

Mikey returned with Splinter as Donnie started his operation.

“My son!” Splinter gasped as he walked over to the table.

“Perfect timing. I need help flipping Raph over on his side. The wound goes directly through his shoulder,” Donnie explained.

Splinter, Donnie and Mikey positioned themselves and lifted Raph’s weight to his left side, being careful not to disrupt the transfusion between he and Leo. Donnie asked if Splinter and Mikey could hold Raph there while Donnie hurriedly cleaned and stitched in sutures. After that, they lightly rolled Raph on his back and Donnie did the same on that side. He made sure no vital veins or arteries were struck before stitching the wound close.

Luckily, Raph’s vitals did not worsen during the operation. They actually improved as he received much needed blood from Leo. Enough blood collected to unhook Leo from the transfusion and Donnie let the rest of the blood drip from the IV into Raph’s arm. Donnie washed up and took the time to sit down and let out a sigh of relief.  His heart never raced so fast and he honestly was worried that Raph would not make it through.

“You did well, Donatello,” Splinter praised him and placed his paw on his shoulder.

“Thanks, Sensei,” he whispered.

“What exactly happened out there? Where is Mona?”

Donnie hesitated for a moment. He had to make sure the next few words out of his mouth would not get confused as something else: “Mona did this to him, Sensei, but her mind was controlled by the Kraang.”

“Controlled?” Splinter reiterated.

“Yes,” he responded and stood up, “It’s something in the mutagen they used on her... which reminds me, I need to study her blood!”

Donnie grabbed one of Raph’s sais and took a sample of the blood from the prongs. He took it over to his work station and began to extract and analyze her DNA. It took him an hour to gather the sample and examine it thoroughly. He often took steps back for a second and reanalyzed it, not believing what he saw under the microscope.

Mona’s DNA was fused with inorganic materials; tiny chips to be exact. He took a closer look at the chips and snagged some data from them. He transferred it to his computer and started to decipher the coding. Luckily, Mona’s freeze on his computer was gone. She was true to her words.

“What did you find out?” Splinter questioned as he came up behind Donnie’s chair.

“I was right. The Kraang have figured out how to meld organic and inorganic material together through the mutagen. It’s a lot harder to fix the biological aspect of her DNA, but I should be able to create a kind of antidote to the mind controlling technology in her blood.”

“Get to work on that, Donnie,” Leo ordered, “Next we have to figure out where Mona is. I’m sure she’s not in the same place.”

“Alright got that covered,” Donnie boasted, “I was able to plant one of my tracking devices on her before knocking her off of Raph.”

“Good work, Donnie. Figure out where that is after you create that antidote.”

“There’s a slight problem with that,” Donnie added.

“What is it?”

“I need a larger blood sample from Mona in order to make it.”

“Are you telling me we have to capture her somehow and bring her back here?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Leo.”

Leo sighed, “Alright then. Track her down and I’ll think of a plan that won’t get us killed.”

A faint moaning came from behind them. Raph was waking up! Everyone rushed over to the table to see how he was doing. Raph attempted to sit up on his own but he was too weak. Mikey assisted him, gently maneuvering him into a comfortable position.

“How’re you feeling?” Donnie asked.

“Like crud,” he groaned.

“Well, you’re going to sit tight and heal up while we go rescue Mona,” Leo told Raph.

“What happened with her?” Raph asked, still quite unsure of what all ensued previously.

Between Donnie, Mikey and Leo, they retold the entire scenario as well as what Donnie found out about Mutagen L. The expression on Raph’s face was hard to look at as the story went on. Not only was he physically hurt, but he was emotionally hurt too.

“I’m going with you,” Raph decided.

“No way!” Leo told him, “You are in no condition to go anywhere.”

“I have to fix this, Leo. It’s my fault this all happened in the first place!”

“I’m sorry, Raph, but I can’t let you…”

“I’m going!” he restated.

“No, and that’s an order!” Leo bellowed, “You’ll stay here with Master Splinter.”

“Leonardo is right, Raphael,” Splinter agreed, “It would be best if you stayed behind. We’ll help move you to a more comfortable spot before your brothers leave.”

Raph really had no choice in the matter and submitted to the pressure. Everyone wordlessly helped Raph over to the couch and then Leo, Donnie and Mikey moved out.

“I can’t believe this,” Raph complained to Splinter.

“Have faith in your brothers, Raphael,” Splinter said as he sat down next to Raph, “I know you care a lot for Mona. I see the way you look at her. You should consider telling her how you feel when this is all resolved.”

“I already have, Sensei,” Raph blushed.

“Oh?”

“But I messed up big time. I made her really angry by interfering and trying to keep her from being shot by her brother. That’s how we left things when _this_ happened,” he said as he pointed to his wound.

“So you were both in the wrong?” Splinter inquired.

“Hai, Sensei.”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever told you the whole story about the night I lost my beloved Tang Shen and Miwa, Raphael. The truth is, earlier that day, Tang Shen and I got into an argument. We were both stressed out, especially as a newly wedded couple and first time parents. Those daily stresses finally built up caused us to say hurtful things to each other. We did not speak for the rest of the day and in fact, we slept in separate rooms that night.

Little did I know that Oroku Saki would strike that night, attempting to take my life. During our fight, a fire broke out in the house, prompting Oroku Saki to flee, taking Miwa with him. Unknowing of what he did, I was frantic for the safety of my family and began searching for them. Unfortunately, Miwa already disappeared at that point and Tang Shen was left crying. She begged me to find Miwa and told me that she was sorry for everything she said to me earlier.

Suddenly, part of the roof collapsed and landed in flames between me and Tang Shen. Her apology was the last I ever heard her speak and I never got the chance to tell her sorry myself. That moment haunts me every day of my life.”

Raph was nearly in tears from the story. He knew how much Splinter lost that day, but he never truly understood what he felt until now.

“What I’m trying to say, Raphael, is to make sure you let the ones you love know you do. You’ll never know what’ll happen a few moments from now, so it’s best to live a life of love than of hate and anger.”

“You’re right, Sensei, we let our anger get the best of us. I just hope she’ll be forgiving.”

“If she loves you as much as you love her, then she is probably feeling the same regret right now. Admitting you were both wrong is not only an act of humility, but of compassion. And compassion is part of the foundation of a devoted relationship.”

“Thank you, Sensei. I should probably get some rest. Who knows how long it’ll be before the guys come back.”

“Good idea,” Splinter agreed as he stood up and made his way back to the dojo.

It did not take long for Raph to fall into a slumber.

* * *

When Mona woke, everything around her was hazy and disoriented. It took her a couple of minutes to clear her vision and when she did, she realized she sat locked up in a similar cage right after her mutation. She looked around and noticed she was back in the same chamber she brought Raph to in the underwater facility, and this time, she was not alone.

Also locked up were Bebop and Rocksteady. Their demeanor was the calmest Mona had seen of them. They acted more human-like than beasts within the cell. In fact, they were talking with each other. Mona could only catch bits and pieces of their conversation, but they said something along the lines of memory loss.

Mona could empathize. One moment she was arguing with Raph and the next she was here. She mentally kicked herself for acting out against Raph like that. She got caught up in the moment and blew up at him, especially since she was in the wrong. Raph saved her life and she repaid him with malicious words.

She clenched her hands and a shot of agony raced up from her hands. She looked down and noticed the large pricks in her hands, covered by dry blood. She did not remember receiving the lacerations from falling down so how did get them? She tried her best to remember but it was impossible. In a fit of anger, she slammed her fist against the wall behind her, causing more pain.

“The one known as Mutant L finally woke from the sleeping state she was formally in.”

“Kraang!” she yelled out, “Explain yourself! What’s going on here?”

“Kraang does not need to explain itself to the one who is held captive.”

“What did you do to me? Why can’t I remember anything?”

The alien ignored her.

Mona let out a loud aggravated sigh as the robot walked away from her, leaving the mutants in the room alone.

“I take it they never told you,” Bebop spoke up. His voice was deep and tough.

“If you’d like to fill me in, I’d really appreciate it,” Mona huffed.

“I’m assuming you were mutated with the same stuff Rocksteady and I was. If that’s the case, then there’s some sort of mind controlling element to it, at least, that’s what the Kraang told us. They want to create some sort of legion of mutants or something like that.”

“Legion?” Mona’s head perked up, “Did they use that word specifically?”

Bebop nodded his head.

“That must be what the ‘L’ means in Mutagen L!” she thought aloud, “I always thought it was just connected to me, but it would make sense why the Kraang refer to us as letters; You guys are B and R an I’m L. Though I still don’t know why they chose L…”

“There are others like us too,” Rocksteady joined in. His voice was surprisingly higher pitched compared to his pachyderm figure, “Twenty-six, if I recall correctly. I think that’s why they specify us as letters.”

“Have you met them?” Mona wondered.

Rocksteady shook his head, “No, only you and Bebop. Who knows if they’ve mutated anyone else?”

“So do the Kraang just turn the mind controlling thing on and off when they want to?” Mona inquired further.

“Yes,” Bebop replied, “As far as we can tell, the Kraang can remotely activate it. Regardless of where we are, the Kraang have a hold on us.”

_The Kraang must have waited to activate control on me since I was trying to spy on the turtles. I guess when they found out I wasn’t going to work with them anymore…_

A loud bang and crash broke Mona from her thoughts. The sounds came from the other side of the room. A couple more thunks and thuds later three figures appeared. Mona stood up to get a better look and had to do a double take, but it was definitely Leo, Donnie and Mikey.

“Mona, we’re here to get you out,” Leo stated as they rushed up to her cage.

“Where’s Raph?” Mona asked, noticing the missing turtle.

The three looked at each other, wondering who was going to break the news. Silently, they decided on Donnie.

“Raph’s gravely injured, Mona.”

“What? How?”

“By you,” he solemnly answered, “The mutagen the Kraang used on you can control your mind and…”

“I just found out about that part,” Mona interrupted, not caring about those details. She was more interested in Raph, “So I hurt him without knowing? What did I do exactly?”

“Yes, you did,” Donnie paused, wondering if he should tell her what happened or lie. He decided it was only fair to her, but he knew he was going to regret this decision, “You grabbed one of his sais from his hand and impaled him through the shoulder with it. That’s also how you got those cuts on your hands. He’s lost a lot of blood, Mona.”

Mona looked at her hands and they began to shake. The cuts did match with the prongs on the sais. She could not believe she did that, especially to Raph. He probably hated her for it. First she got angry at him and then stabbed him to the point of nearly bleeding to death. Not exactly the way to say ‘I love you’ to someone you care about.

She glanced up, with a determined look on her face, “You have to get out of here. I’m too dangerous to be around. If the Kraang find out you’re here, I’ll probably kill you.”

“Sorry, sis, but that won’t be part of the plan,” Mikey informed her.

Donnie walked over to the lock and easily got through: “I can counter the technology controlling you, but we have to take you back to the lab.”

“If you plan to do that, I hope you planned to tie me up,” Mona explained, “Apparently the Kraang can remotely activate it whenever. When they notice I’m gone, they’ll for sure flip the switch.”

“Which is why we’re going to knock you out,” Leo told her as he entered the cage.

“Knock me ou…” Mona started to say before Leo pinched a pressure point in her shoulder blade. The weight of her body dropped to the ground and Donnie and Mikey caught her before she crashed to the ground. Mikey securely tied her hands behind her back and they began to make their way out. Mikey glanced over to the two other locked up mutants, noticing they were not acting like ferocious monsters anymore.

“What about them?” he pointed out, “We can’t just leave them here too. They’re just like Mona and need our help.”

“Unfortunately we don’t have the time or man power right now, Mikey,” Donnie elucidated.

“He’s right,” Bebop interjected, “We’re only a danger if we come with you. Get the girl out and help her.”

“We’ll try to come back and help you,” Leo offered.

“Don’t worry about us,” Rocksteady answered, “If she helps you find a cure for this curse, then that’s all we can ask for. Hopefully the next time we meet we won’t be trying to bash your heads in. If that’s not the case, then our apologies in advance.”

“Any day now, guys!” Donnie complained.

Mikey and Leo agreed that they had wasted too much time and hastily made their escape. Luckily, Mona did not wake up en route to the lair. When they got back, they propped her body up against the concrete pillar in the middle of the living area and tied her hands and feet to it. If she woke up, she would not be able to move and would not be a threat to anyone.

By this time, Raph awoke and a giant wave of relief escaped from his body, knowing Mona was safe. It unsettled him that she had to be tied up like an animal, but he understood it was for her and everyone’s safety.

Donnie did not waste any time getting to work on the antidote. He took a larger blood sample from her arm and rushed into his lab, closing the doors behind him. Hopefully by the time he came out, he would have a cure. In the meantime, Leo, Raph and Mikey waited outside, silently watching over Mona.

An hour passed before Mona woke up, grumbling incoherently. When she finally came to, she lunged forward, yelling and grunting, trying to break free of her restraints. The empty eyes and the aggression were positive signs of her not in control of herself.

They needed to knock her out again and this time, Raph volunteered. He grabbed one of his sais with his left hand and clonked her in the back of the head with end of the handle. She fell limp at the moment of contact.

“You didn’t need to use that much force on her!” Leo chastised.

“What do you mean?” Raph shrugged, “How else was I supposed to do it?”

“I don’t know, maybe with a pressure point? Did you not pay any attention to our lessons about disarming people without being too physical?”

“Nope, I must have been daydreaming during that,” he came back sarcastically, “Plus, she’ll stay out longer with this hit than some stupid pressure point.”

“Fine by me,” Leo retorted, “Then you get to explain to her why she has bumps and bruises all over her body.”

Donnie poked his head out from his lab and yelled, “Will you two stop arguing? I’m trying to concentrate here!”

“Sorry, Donnie,” Leo and Raph apologized in unison. Donnie slipped back into the lab and the living room fell silent again.

Three more hours passed and still nothing from Donnie. Mikey and Leo broke off and silently held a conversation on the other end of the couch. Raph could not hear them, nor did he care about what they were saying. He sat right across from Mona, mutely reflecting on everything that happened in the past few days. He replayed each scenario in his head and considered if things would be have changed if he did or said anything different. He regretted every mistake he made but knew there was nothing he could do at this point but to try and make amends. He thought back to what Splinter told him and he desperately wanted to tell Mona he was sorry and make it up to her somehow. She held a special place in his heart and right now, it was shattered into a million little pieces. The more and more he waited on Donnie, the more and more he grew anxious.

The grumbling noises in front of him drew him out of his thoughts. Mona was waking up again. It also caught the attention of Mikey and Leo and they made their way over.

“I’ll do it this time,” Leo instructed. As he lifted his hand up to place it on Mona’s shoulders, Donnie burst out of his lab.

“Wait, don’t!” he called out, “I have it ready!” He dashed forward with a syringe gun in his hand loaded with an emerald liquid, “She needs to be awake for this to make sure it takes effect.”

Mona fully woke up and started the thrash in her restraints. Mikey and Leo grabbed her and pinned her against the pillar, restricting her movements further. Donnie moved in and shot the injection into the crook of her neck. She stopped resisting and eventually passed out. Seconds later, she came to in a less violent manner, observing everything around her.

“Did you…?” Mona started to say.

Raph’s heart skipped a beat. Elation filled every inch of his body.

“I’ll have to take another blood sample from you to make sure, but yes, I figured out an antidote,” Donnie replied as he pulled out another syringe and took more of her blood, “Until then, we’ll have to keep you like this but I promise it won’t take long for me to look at it.”

“That’s understandable,” she agreed, “Do what you have to.”

Donnie raced back to the lab, leaving the other turtles with Mona. She looked up at Raph and smiled. It surprised Raph and he was at a loss for words. He frantically tried to think of something to say but all he could manage was to weakly smile back.

“Raph, I…” Mona said before Donnie came back in.

“It worked!” he exclaimed, “Now let’s get you untied.”

Leo and Mikey broke the ties, giving free movement back to Mona. She rubbed her aching wrists, trying to relieve the pain and numbness there but felt it all over. Then she rubbed the back of her head and felt a bump. That explained why she had a pounding headache.

“That was my bad,” Raph nervously admitted, “But I guess that makes us even now.”

Mona laughed, “It does, but I don’t think we’ll ever be even about your…” her words drifted as she pointed out the bandages on his shoulder.

Raph walked up to her, pulled her close to his body with his uninjured arm and planted a soft kiss on her lips. Emotions flooded her mind, causing her eyes to well up. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, not wanting to ever let go of him.

Meanwhile, Mikey, Donnie and Leo’s eyes were wide with shock, jaws agape and bodies paralyzed as they tried to rationalize what was happening in front of them. They obviously missed something because Raph was the last turtle they would ever imagine to hook up with a girl.

Raph and Mona shared that special moment a couple of seconds longer before pulling away. Raph placed his forehead on hers and whispered, “I’m sorry, Mona.”

“I’m sorry too, Raphael,” she whispered back as she raised his head and looked into his eyes. They did not have to explain anything to each other because they could read every emotion and thought in each other’s gazes. They both knew they messed up and they both forgave each other for that.

“Um, this is really awkward,” Mikey spoke out, breaking up the sentimental moment.

Mona and Raph looked over to the trio, realizing what happened. Raph’s cheeks flushed and Mona nervously laughed aloud.

“So are you two dating then?” Mikey continued.

“Mikey!” Raph shouted and started to chase his brother around with a fist in the air.

“I’ll take that as a yes!” Mikey yelped, trying to avoid being punched.

Ignoring Raph and Mikey’s antics, Leo turned to Mona and asked: “What are you going to do about your brother? He’s still out there.”

“I’m not sure,” she answered truthfully, “It’ll probably take a while to track him down again. In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to find a way to put my skills to good use.”

“You could help us track down Kraang and Foot activity,” Donnie suggested, “I can even hook you up with whatever tech you’ll need.”

“Really, you’d do that?” Mona asked in surprise.

“Of course. You’re one of us now and we mutants need to stick together.”

Mona gleamed in happiness. After a rapid succession of unfortunate events in her life, she finally found a place she truly belonged. It could never replace the familial bonds she had with her mother and brother, but her life was always filled with discord. She finally found stability with her mutant friends and that was more than she could ever ask for.

She would eventually find her brother again and reclaim that part of her life. She also wanted to destroy the Kraang and their Mutagen L project. But for now, she wanted to enjoy what she had in the present and foster her relationship with Raph.

No worries, no fears and no regrets. That was the life she planned to live.

 

**End of Mutant L and Part One of Mona Lisa’s Ballad.**


End file.
